The Omnipresence of Audio
And so, “Listening Habits Volume #6” – 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!
SkyTigers – Injustice For All
February 2026
Melodic Hardcore / Hardcore Punk / Crossover Thrash
Bar cringes to the point of quasi-implosion as a result of the contemporary literary style showcased the first time I featured SkyTigers* on EN, reading it back to myself ahead of then writing this ditty of an earnest imploration and incitation of interest in this fucking belter of a band from Massachusetts, the conclusion was evident to me that SkyTigers, to ‘eff and blind again – unquivocally fucking slap.
The veritable broadside of a stellar back catalogue aside, Injustice For All and its infallible descriptive aptronym fronts a nine-track affront of masterfully arranged Punk-Rock-Hardcore-Thrash that obliterates any use of idioms employed to describe its furore. Somewhere in, around and in between slick Melodic Hardcore Punk that embodies rather than omits its lineage and virulently politicised Crossover Thrash, Injustice For All sagely balances this composite, either side of outright sojourning diversions toward whatever pole of the above is required at any given catharsis.
*If the band’s penchant for Melodic Hardcore is for you, then 3/4 of SkyTigers are also in another band by the name of The Promised End with other members of the Massachusetts music scene.
Black Flag – Loose Nut
May 1985
Hardcore Punk / Metal / Proto-Sludge / Proto-Grunge
The history of Black Flag, in, around and outside of their musical output is truly one for the ages, especially given the fact that despite it all, the band are still going and “Punk” circles are still ardently debating it all. Such really speaks for the phenomenon of noise that Raymond Pettibone’s black bars have reverberated amidst the zeitgeist; however, with all that being said, I lack the time or patience to trawl through all that today, bar a simple statement and motion of respect towards the young musicians now taking up the ever-contentious mantle.
With the ubiquitous nature of Black Flag’s influence being what is across the entirety of their tenure in Punk-Rock, Hardcore, and (more than) arguably extending to Noise, Sludge and the fellow culturally potent and societally upturning quake that was Grunge, it is fair to say that, admittedly, among others in the band’s continuity, 1985’s Loose Nut is an addicve yet caustic and unsettlingly enthralling narcotic in Punk music’s evolution.
Though Greg Ginn’s unconventional approach had already been sojourning in the uncharted by this point and would do so elsewhere, with a handful of releases admittedly outside of my knowledge (for now), Loose Nut is not only perhaps my favourite of this more jazzed Proto-Sludge Metal but also marks a more varied period of writing credits outside of just Ginn himself, with Rollins, Kira Roessler, Bill Stevenson among others, duly credited. That said, far be it from me to speculate, ponder or even approach, implicitly suggesting any hypothesis as to why Loose Nut is so prominent within so many musicians’ evaluations of their own work and inspiration.
This Black Flag and you have the internet…
This Is Hell – Born Suspicious
May 2026
Hardcore Punk / Crossover Thrash
This Is Hell, a formative force for many and a mainstay for many more, returned this very 2026 exactly when and how they meant to, precisely so. Whether this Gandalf-esque comparison holds or not is subjective, as is whether Born Suspicious is attired in grey or white within it. However, given the commanding nature of this EP within my listening habits this past May, I would say that my eyes (and ears) do not deceive me. This Is Hell “The White”, despite protestation of a misleading nature, always had unfinished business.
The band’s output, canonically, boasts that of a cross-section of Hardcore Punk imbued with as much enticing melody as it is a terraforming force of vigorous metallic volatility. A journey through it all indulges the divisional proclivities of the lifers and Hardcore devotees with Born Suspicious, contrary to its five-round chamber, exuding a calibre that encompasses it all, postured defiantly beyond the numerical nature of itself.
For those who know or soon will, imagine if 2010’s Weight of The World had been made post the monstrous leviathan that was 2011’s Black Mass and this latest earns its place. Born Suspicious is a calculated, considered and unabatedly honest (existential) critic of a doomed timeline derived from the very apex of a band at their best, precisely as and when it means to.
MakeWar – A Paradoxical Theory of Change
June 2024
Pop-Punk / Emo
MakeWar are one of those bands that, whenever I could, I have made the effort to experience live. Twice in the Slovenian mountain sun, once in considerably closer to home chill of the UK’s south west and once, even upon a small constricting screen displaying a solitary third of the band’s evocation in the grips of social isolation. Exposition aside and with nothing in particular attributed to the medium, the band exude an effortless, all-encompassing field of energy that earnestly envelops such an experience and that, despite such a rich back catalogue (that is on my deep-dive list respectively; again), consistently leads A Paradoxical Theory of Change to a residency of sorts within my listening habits.
Though typically charted as some sort of scrappy, gritty but soaring blend of Pop-Punk and Emo-Pop career-wide, though perfectly complementary, there is so much more to MakeWar despite that. Full-length number four confidently boasts a cross-reference of influences and comparisons while still very much ticking those metaphorical boxes. Succinctly put, four’s thirty-eight-minute duration is indisputably confident.
MakeWar toast the previous incarnations of their scrappy Punk-Emo amalgam, where playful Pop-sensibilities are cut with the Transit-esque Indie-Rock-Emo hybrid from “back in the day”, and yet further in that direction does this band take you. Expressive, discordant, dissonant and raw in both production and delivery, it’s hard not to feel the legacy of that initial wave of what was considered early Emo*, with either or both of the pre-Fugazi juggernauts known as Rites of Spring or Embrace coming to mind through this release. Alter your perspective forward again, stop off at Samiam or even further towards some contemporaries on the UK circuit – namely Burnt Tapes and perhaps Harker and you have an idea of how this album’s depth of field is and was worth your time before you were even aware of it.
*Yes, I’ve seen that Ian Mackye clip and yes, I’m aware of the lengthy debate, but I hear what I hear, and I really don’t have the energy to attempt a disavowing coup against the nomenclature today, thank you very much. Controversy be damned!
Wolfe Sunday – Rover
May 2026
Folk Punk / Punk-Rock
In the act of roving the expanse of life and chasing the apocryphal dream we are impressed upon to pursue in a questionable but hypertrophied fervour, the boots of Wolfe Sunday are well trodden. 2013 marked the outset of a fledgling journey that either side of and often between electrical amplification and drum skins, has now arrived at a sufficiently folked Punk release entitled with the aptronym of Rover.
An album ‘[…] about going through a period of transition, feeling lost in the physical and digital hellscapes we live in, and also about a toy dog called Rover’ compiled, comprised and means-tested between 2023 and this very year, Wolfe Sunday’s best work beckons you to the road again, as an ironic cure to the existential ache occupying your weary legs. Having added the expertise of full-band frustration from elsewhere, Wolfe Sunday’s welcoming yet deconstructive diction is imbued with a greater gusto this time around. Impassioned and more emphatically expressive, Rover is plied with more noticeable Punk-Rock and Black Flag-ish Grunge (see ‘Roving Blade’) that infiltrates and accentuates the catharsis on Rover in more ways than one, from direct octane to a gurgling, menacing yet relatable underbelly elsewhere itself in benefit via Rover’s production.
Through hinterlands, frontiers of literal geography and that of the cranial scapes of our own personal expanse, defiance, woe, motion and self-evaluation are expeditiously shared with you on the project’s latest, and you’re already mid-stride before any cognition of the aforementioned beckoning has landed. Rover employs the playful, honest and sincere nature many will recognise from previous work alongside a comparatively incendiary display conjoined with a clear dedication to experimenting with a tried and tested craft without losing a sense of self.
‘[…] be the person you will not let down’
As a quick note, there are also acoustic renditions of both ‘Everything Is On Fire’ and ‘Twenty Thousand Leagues’, marking further worthy stops on the journey of Rover.
Volume #4 of “Listening Habits“, then.
Felt inspired, too lazy to delete later, enjoy, I suppose.
