STICK TO YOUR GUNS - KEEP PLANTING FLOWERS
Keep Planting Flowers is the ninth studio album by the Orange County Hardcore Stalwarts Stick To Your Guns. The album was released digitally on January 10, 2025, through SharpTone Records.
OVERALL THOUGHTS
.jpg)
I have been a fan of Stick To Your Guns since I first discovered them at Warped Tour, in 2013 I want to say? Don't quote me on the date but you see these dayside/side stage bands that often steal the show, at least they do for me, because one you have no expectations and they let all out on that stage with nothing to lose.
I immediately grabbed "For What Its Worth" their 2005 debut. I wasn't doing a top 10 list, at least not publicly at the time, but their 2010 offering, "The Hope Division" at the time, is uniqueness, to how this for all accounts Hardcore rooted band, shows temperance in representing that genre. They defy genre in a lot of respects with sprinklings of metalcore, punk interludes, and even some just downright metal choruses. I listened to the last 2 albums and while they were fine, they were just that, so when I heard they were ready to rebuild and go back a little bit to their roots, their Indie roots mind you, I was excited.
So here we are with a 10 song nuclear blast that again defies the steps and scopes of traditional hardcore while paying homage not only to the bands that do the type of hardcore we all know, the Sick of It All's and Turnstile's, but to their own lineage that frontman and founding member Jesse Barnett so established on that stage that afternoon in Mountain View, California in 2013 when I saw them for the first time. Presence is a word often flung about in music, especially stronghold music like Hardcore, Punk, and Metal but beyond that usual sentiment what I gravitated towards was how Jesse demands from the audience the kind of reverence he pays them. Maybe more than presence there is real and tangible essence you get from the arrangements, the tone, and cadence of Stick To Your Guns. Here it's on full scale display in just 25 minutes of amazingness in this album "Keep Planting Flowers". While it won't be giving "Hope" a run for its money it is the closest thing to what that album is for this fan in a very, very long time.
TRACK 1 - WE ALL DIE ANYWAY
This fades into my 3rd favorite track on the album, a much more modern hardcore fare that has a nice bit of Korn-like percussion from Galindo mixed in with the Andrew Rose bass lines that wax nostalgic for a Sick of It All or Madball. This, combined with the awesome backdrop guitar riff from the lead Josh James, becomes one of the signatures of Stick To Your Guns: their amazing choruses. This song has the best 1, 2, 3 type arrangement to it. This would be a great intro song for those who have never heard this band before.
TRACK 3 - PERMANENT DARK
Goes back into a much more composed anthem, stomp rhythm that feels more in sync than the opening track, and goes into a great guitar scratch from James into this ethereal chorus line of harkening dark angel-like hauntedness. It's one of several cool transitions that again a band that mixes so much genre-wise into their sound really showcases how unique they are without ever losing who they are.
TRACK 4 - WHO NEEDS WHO
Plays more to their punk sentimentality, almost like a T. S. O. L. but slows toward the end to bring you into the anthem stomp again dictated by James and Galindo and echoed through a nice bit of vocal patience from Barnett. This is a great fist-pumping, boot-stomping track that I think you can also rip 10 reps of arm curls too easily.
TRACK 5 - SEVERED FOREVER
Brings the metal, this one plays a lot like a metalcore song from a band like The Ghost Inside or or The Amity Affliction. There is a nice mixture of growls to clean and the clean hits the high note that gives a song like this texture and staying power. There is also a nice little sneaky bass line that thumps in the background kind of reminding folks of the hardcore roots. It is my 2nd favorite track here.
TRACK 6 - MORE THAN A WITNESS
Now we have reached hardcore, thrash portion of the album. This has a great opening riff that pushes a little bit for me at the beginning, then again you get that nice angelic clean chorus and bridge that almost feels like a caught breath or good rhythm to bring you that warm and fuzzy okay they haven't lost me feeling. I love the echoing fade out of the instruments at the end of this song. Super crafty production magic that I think shows how savvy production wise this band really is. There is this wind gust that rips through the back end of this track. Just a neat way to absolve and head into the next track.
You want to know what you would get going back and listening to 2010's "The Hope Divison"? It is so reminiscent of this song. There is such a unique pacing and just this fierce emotional grab from heartbreaking lyrics. There is so much here. The chorus is perfect and the drumming Galindo provides plays to the passion of what Barnett is just unveiling in twists of pain and reverence here. "Locked in a strain of losses and gains...It's coming for you like it came for me". Its powerful bordering on unforgettable.
TRACK 8 - KEEP PLANTING FLOWERS
How about a hardcore ballad? With some more incredible lyrical seance that provokes such a great tie-in to the previous track, it almost feels like Rain and Flowers should be on the track listing together. It is an incredible show of how great a concept can work even within the throws of an album that isn't truly conceptual in nature. There is this nice ying to the yang of Invisible Rain with the hurt becoming more internalized almost like the person being sung to in the previous track took Barnett's advice and what that cause and effect became from it. I love that the reflection is slowed down here and not metered like Rain or any other track here. It's an incredible interlude to kind of settle you within a full album listen.
Then here comes the punch in the face, a truly old-school hardcore song that softens the pallet with a nice guitar note holding into a fierce pounding that shutters as relentless bass lines and kick drums carry you into another melodic chorus. A little same same until you let the guitars wash you over. This is a great showcase of James and Rawson here. Their most pronounced contributions by far. The chorus kind of smothers that effort a little too much in this one for me.
Why not end how you began, a little pounding, a little disjointed, though this unlike "Die Anyway" seems a much more energized by the rhythm guitar kind of leading the way instead of Barnett just screaming over top everything. Letting the quakes of notes flush into Barnett's scream then feel overdubbed there's at least a pace here to engage. The dubbed over plain just screaming is where this song kind of loses me.
At the end of the day if this was intended by Stick To Your Guns to ironically live up to this namesake by revisiting the before version of this band while still incorporating a few of the things that it had evolved for this band as signatures and creature comforts than you have to say this album was a home run. I am already doubling and tripling up on about half these tracks here into my rotations. I think throughout the year, in a strong year, this may not hold on to a spot in the Indie Dozen favorites but for now its there all by its lonesome and I am okay with letting it seep into my skin a little more. It is an excellent album from an excellent band who have always had great, if nothing else to call it, luck with production value but this is pristine in that aspect. There are too many bands to list that if you liked this you'd like Stick To Your Guns. If you are a metalcore, punk, or hardcore fan I think you would find a track or two on your rotations too. So check it out.
YOU CAN GET STICK TO YOUR GUNS - KEEP PLANTING FLOWERS HERE
Comments
Post a Comment