After years of hard to contain anticipation the new Stick To Your Guns album has finally arrived. It is packed full of highlights and showcases the versatility of the Californian Hardcore powerhouse. If you didn’t follow all of Jesse’s many side projects, you might be surprised about some directions this album goes.
While there were four songs released in advance, I personally sequestered myself of their most recent two singles, so I could discover the album as a whole. ”More Of Us Than Them” was already released in 2021 and even though everyone was waiting for a new Stick To Your Guns record, no one really knew when it would come out, so of course I gave it a thorough listen. When ”Weapon” dropped, the album was finally announced and the hardcore community began fevering up for the first new record in five years. So how does it hold up?
Spectre starts with a short intro, which is then followed by the aforementioned ”Weapon”. It is such a catchy yet hard-hitting song, which serves as a perfect opener for the album. ”Who Dares Wins” opens up with another trademark of all Stick To Your Guns albums: audio snippets. The political stance of the band should be obvious by now, but this short snippet places it in front of even the most oblivious listener.
The award for the heaviest song on the album would probably go to ”Hush”. The mosh pits to this song will be big and destructive, just as you’d expect for a good hardcore show. The circle pits when ”A World To Win” is played will also be something to behold.
The vibe changes a lot when ”Open Up My Head” starts and really shows the versatility of the band. The track definitely could also be on one of the earlier Trade Wind albums. We then return to the “business as usual” section of the album, which shouldn’t be seen as something negative. We have hungered for five years to listen to a new record by the Californians. Jesse’s vocals are as angry as ever, same goes for the rest of the band instrumentation, as it is on point as always.
When I first listened to ”Father”, it felt like the last song of the album and I was pleasantly surprised that there were two more songs to come. One of these is ”More Of Us Than Them” and the title should already make it clear, which direction this song goes. There are many ignorant and horrible people out there, but there are more decent and good people than those. The closing track of the album ”No Way To Live” could be straight from Jesse’s solo endeavor Wish You Were Here. It closes the album in a meaningful and soft way.
Spectre is an album that every hardcore fan should listen to in 2022 and it once again shows that Stick To Your Guns are still one of the best songwriters in the genre. The record is full of variety and every song has a meaning stuck behind it.
