Album Review: The Wrecks - 'The Wrecks II'

Finding a local band you can’t criticise is a tough feat in this climate of abounding music. For every outfit you enjoy listening to on Bandcamp, there’s that niggling comment about production quality or tuning that you can’t push out of your elitist-analytical mind. Surprisingly, listening to The Wrecks doesn’t summon that thought. Their brand of melodic hardcore melded with blazing noise punk is balanced and honestly just right. Who could ask for more?

Their latest EP ‘The Wrecks II’ certainly does the job it’s supposed to do: taking aim and spitting fire. Opener ‘Police State’ asserts a political focus, with unsuppressed rage and unprecedented fury. The way it restarts its ignition just as you think it’s about to end is, in itself, rebellious and pleasing. It’s the shortest song on the EP, but it’s loaded.

Follow-up ‘Network Candy’ doesn’t leave you high and dry, with sassy riffs and thinly veiled rock ‘n’ roll influences all over it. It burns slower than its predecessor, but more intensely. Just when you thought it couldn’t overstep the line, ‘Fearless Kid’ makes itself the EP’s standout. It’s desperate, lower and heavier – the darkest track on the 7” – with an atmospheric and razor-sharp build up. Above all, its lyrics are most cutting, with a startling narrative and these samplers for reference: “I don’t wanna be dead/ I just wanna be free”.

The EP’s closer returns to a sound with a less potent sadness, but its disdain for whoever the vocalist is talking to preserves the record’s blatant aversion to humanity’s worst. It’s easy to empathise with, because it’s emotive. It may sound like casual hardcore (and if so, only fleetingly), but listen close and you’ll hear its heart beat.

The Wrecks are surprisingly talented, with an explosive hardcore punk sound that displays both a lack of fear and a jarring intensity. If that alone isn’t enough, the sincere sense of feeling that underpins this EP ought to be.

1. Police State

2. Network Candy

3. Fearless Kid

4. Shit Venom