The Omnipresence of Audio
And so, “Listening Habits Volume #5” – the new frontier. Well, not really or in fact at all. Welcome to a new series emanating from the reanimated Ear Nutrition. A collection of words pertaining to the human ability to create art by banging, picking and plucking various objects in sequence to form a coherent whole.
The modus operandi of this series is to celebrate the very nature of these sounds. From the legacy of the old onward to the fluidic, undulating nature of the contemporary and finally, to the frequent flashes of the emergent, all in reverence to the functional and irrevocable symbiosis of the three.
Succinctly put. The new, the old and the somewhere-in-between, communicated in written form whenever I can be bothered, as experienced by my very own lug’oles in effort to counter the mundanity-derived cognitive atrophy I’ve experienced since bining this off!
The Overjoyed – The Overjoyed
February 2026
Ramonescore / Garage Punk / Power-Pop
Given all the Hellenes have achieved, propagated and inspired since humanity decided that precedent might just be of some use to any forthcoming posterity, any surprise felt at the inherent ability of The Overjoyed to raise the bar generally, but also within their own organic microcosm of self-patented Punk, is completely devoid of any point or attempt at substantiation.
Despite the nascent origins of their penchant for ’90s-esque Skate-infused Pop-Punk carrying them far, it was never a stage to be played on indefinitely. For the band’s shameless adoration for harmonious pop-sensibilities and buoyantly self-aware but innately keen sardonic humour has been progressively diverging towards the embodiment of sonic dispositions further back along the melodious timeline. 2023’s Pressure Pop, it’s true, was considerably more than just a simple stopgap in their own homeric epic, but it gave some hint toward the expedition’s eventual machinations.
Enter 2026, and the band’s eponymous foray into this very year is the record I don’t think I was ready for, despite the choice-cut (or were they?) singles espousing such confidence. Whole, The Overjoyed perfects the band’s acuity for aserbic wit, regardless of lyrical directive. Ranging from (but not limited to) creative frustration, retrospective strife or even targeted jibes at the omnipresent (and perhaps, effervescent in this case) cyclical softening of a sub-cultural moral fabric, the word “dull” is a stain erased from lexical existence.
Despite their previous sorties into Ramonescore, Garage Punk and Power-Pop, this self-titled effort is the apex of a band at total stylistic confidence on par with such intelligent songwriting. I should think it’s also prudent to mention that the production of this release, colloquially put, absolutely fucking slaps. From every overtly heavy riff, contrasting melody and onward to every masterfully enveloping instrumental, The Overjoyed have created something truly a contender for “album of the year”.
Good Riddance – Before The World Caves In
March 2026
Melodic Hardcore / Punk-Rock
Persistent, consistent, indomitable – these are all words with more than just a few alternatives that could precede the adjective “quality” when it comes to any discourse on the enduring legacy of Good Riddance. Given a career as durational as theirs, you can be forgiven for worrying or feeling somewhat ill at ease at the prospect of new releases. Yet, the only bewilderment, discombobulation or innate constitutional alteration you will ever experience as a result of this very eventuality, is one of unbridled awe – or relevant synonym – at the supposedly apocryphal ability GR have to remain so north the banality line.
Given said career and in this here 2026, such is no meagre accolade despite the four-piece maintaining such a structurally and compositionally cohesive output, hitherto and including Before The World Caves In.
Speaking of which, the release itself. Russ Rankin takes his position as a theasarus personified, weaponised and incendiary as the album itself rises to a writhing brim of thoughtful rumination, emotional availability and the evocation of hope, but also of the faux inverse and regretful lamentation therein, alongside whatever realism dares to dwell betwixt. Almost as a guide to follow, the slick and indistinguishable guitar of (Luke) Pabich produces leads, lines and riffs to follow into any breach forced from such acutely poignant diction. Whether more in line with the band’s slick archetypal pace, dabbling of Pop-Punk melodies at mid-tempo or gritted, comparatively pounding Hardcore, the rhythmic energy is emboldened by Chuck Platt’s time-tested bass alongside the venerable control emitted by Sean Sellers, ever reminding you of the Santa Cruz Hardcore at their very centre.
Belaying all that, alternatively, I could just have said – “Good Riddance have done it again”. That would have been much easier, but also considerably south of the banality line. Before The World Caves In is another to top any prospective annualised noise ranking.
Templeton Pek – Savages
October 2025
Alternative Rock / Post-Hardcore / Punk-Rock
Birmingham’s Templeton Pek, by my account at least, should be huge. The band’s nigh-on twenty-year traversal of the underground music scene has yielded a sizeable back catalogue that, from the very opening notes of 2007’s ‘If All Else Fails’ has been meandering exploratively and expansively through layers upon layers of adrenaline-fueled Skate Punk, an urgent maturity derived from both Melodic and Post-Hardcore and a compositely well-attuned Alternative Rock, able to veer to and from any and all as much as it can hold its own.
Given the prowess with which the band’s amalgam has existed thus far, it was no surprise and yet welcome that Savages-proper appeared in October. Further depicting the abjectly descending incline of a narrative so picturesque in its autonomous self-destruction – a path captured so well on 2018’s Watching The World Come Undone – Templeton Pek are far from complacent and comparatively, even further from capitulation.
This perspective, though challenged, is an obstinate stance against any prospect of resignation and given the band’s ability to sound so gargantuan, despite their three-piece stature, you feel as if you are there with them*. Savages itself is the product of the incremental honing of the band’s well-travelled take on Punk-Rock and sees them at their most confident posture regarding the fluid nature of their take on Alt. Rock and Post-Hardcore.
Full-length number six may not be quite as reliant on the Skate Punk and Melodic Hardcore of previous iterations, but there isn’t a moment where this is a problem. In fact, album-wide, akin to the band’s output canonically, any atrophy in spirit is beyond even fiction. Plus, notably when tempo is the only organic, cathartic option, its execution is as decidedly at home as Templeton Pek are from start to finish on Savages.
*I am pleased to say that for those yet to see the band live, this presence of such a dwarfing, all-encompassing and enveloping sound is equally felt in a live setting.
Fast Blood – Sunny Blunts
May 2024
Punk-Rock / Post-Hardcore
Sunny Blunts is one of those releases that confidently exudes such an engaging quality and robust sense of self that, upon play, you instantly feel a pang of localised regret for all the time that it wasn’t owning the sound emanating from whatever set-up that it has, in real time, by now, commandeered entirely. In fact, by the time you’re even cogniscent of said regret, you’re too under its raucous sway to worry about anything but the records directive.
Indeed, it’s been some time since 2024, and now, though the band are soon to begin the great unshackling of the sequel to this writhing hybrid of Post-Hardcore and melodic Punk-Rock, I would say now is the perfect time to reacquaint and follow the process above. It’s worth it.
Said hybrid is one of a clout as heavy as the visceral lambastations it contains, nourished by and born from pure frustration. The grizzled, gritty and yet keen edges of Dischord Post-Hardcore are sedimentary as they feed, enrich and yet also equate salvos of lyrical indignation, that, contrary to such a word’s polarity of definition, are performed with a fearless resolve cut with an adjunct of grinning defiance. Combine these attributes with an air of the seminal, anthemic tones of Caution-era Hot Water Music and the Fast Blood circulatory system’s coordination of affairs is total and beyond repute.
Brash, self-aware, honest and self-sustaining via its fluid, characteristic vigour, Sunny Blunts should be in everyone’s listening habits. This is the sound of a band set to push their respective watermark further with each coming tide. Stay tuned.
Le Rox – Homesick (EP)
October 2025
Hardcore Punk / Post-Hardcore
Le Rox are a band that facilitated a swift metaphorical kick to my person from my person upon discovering them amidst the annual pre-Manchester Punk Festival research earlier this year. During their set, at the largest venue of the weekend, I and I should think many others were in awe of how the band had such unbridled control of the stage.
Live performance aside, the band’s debut EP, unsurprisingly, provokes much the same reaction with its impassioned, combustive and unabated assault on the senses. Ferocious, groove-laden and yet melodious, the Le Rox sound is one in a constant state of contrast with itself, which it uses to great effect. Slick Melodic Hardcore runners are the track from which the hammer and anvil of a compositionally heavier-set Hardcore Punk accumulate velocity before sundering all in its path.
The band’s amorphous position on this Punk and Hardcore spectrum is also one of contortion and depth. Though felt EP-wide, a strong, brooding, expansive Post-Hardcore re-distributes the bedrock of the Hardcore music it is prone to, and there is perhaps no better example than in both ‘Not You’ and ‘Suffocator’. The Post-NYHC metallicized, angular riffage and Thrash-derived rumble so prevalent in the scene is also toasted and twisted to this five-track leviathan’s indomitable whim.
All this given, the finalising symbiotic affront of Homesick is the sheer weight and brawn of the vocal performance. The narrative inspirations behind these songs are completely assailing and effortless in their ardent and masterful intonation of self and there isn’t a moment where your concentration is remotely allowed to waver.
You should probably listen to this band.
Distral – ‘As We Lay’ (Single)
April 2026
Melodic Hardcore
Typically, “Listening Habits” is a five-release affair, but sometimes even your own rules are but a precarious breadth away from disregard.
That and Distral, a band from Suomi (Finland), who yesterday (at the time of writing), after some time away, once again proved themselves to be at the pinnacle of evocative Melodic Hardcore Punk with the release of the unequivocally poignant, ‘As We Lay’.
The emotional resonance I felt pacing in front of where I live, listening to this track over and over in the blazing sunshine, in a moment of relative personal bliss away from the salient backdrop of inertia and failure that this timeline has become, is difficult to quantify. So much so, that I won’t cheapen the articulate message of ‘As We Lay’ by offering comment beyond this – Necessity is often unrivalled in its ability to eclipse relative volition.
‘So may you never forget all the things that we have done,
May you never forget all your children and
their future that now has become just the
dream of the past.
Once I had hope, now every day, a little bit less,
Let the nature take its course and let it set us to rest’
Musically, Distral’s ability to match grounded Hardcore with soaring melody, as if matched to anger, contemplation, and, in this case, decision, is as effortless as it’s ever been. Seemingly, in the Distral camp (production included), nothing is ready until it sounds exactly as it is supposed to.
Vocally, the band are in full force, and it is their alternation in duties between verse and chorus that supplants gravity’s functional purpose of pinning you into place. Harmonious backing vocals contrast and accentuate the hoarse urgency of the chorus as much as they do ‘As We Lay’ in its entirety, adding a depth of field to its already existential scope.
I would go as far as to say, nay, state, that in its 2:58 duration, this new single stands indisputably emblematic of Melodic Hardcore at its absolute zenith.
01/05/26 will see the release of their final full-length, Reclaimer. Take note.
Listening Habits Volume #5 is comprised of some current obsessions, previous fixations, “the list” and bands caught live in recent excursions away from (privilege and) the mundanity of life in what is supposed in this hereby monikered (and assumed advanced) civilisation.
Another one will follow when I am adrenalised enough by the ever-elusive stimulant known as motivation.
