The 101's

For The Years

Written by: PP on 22/04/2014 23:57:03

Easycore, pop-hardcore, pop punk. The genre isn't important here, it is the explosive vocal delivery that should catapult The 101's from Holland into everyone's radar who's a fan of any of the aforementioned three styles. Few vocalists will jump at you from the record in the way that Andy does on "For The Years", drawing a very direct and unavoidable parallel to the explosive and charismatic styles of Parker Cannon (The Story So Far) and Ben Kotin (Such Gold). Add in a few breakneck speed melodies, raw, yet edgy guitars and plenty of infectious guitar leads, and you have a release that should raise plenty of eyebrows as it begins to do its rounds via word-of-mouth hype.

Why's that, you ask? It's simply been a while since an unknown European punk rock band has delivered an expression this mature and this convincing already on their debut album. Clean production that avoids being overpolished leaves the guitars nicely melodically ringing, giving a perfect platform for Andy to shout and scream his infectious lines from. Album opener "Not Like You" features exactly the kind of fiery vocal delivery that makes the song irresistible, and on the other hand, closing track "The Corner" is one of the catchiest sing-along tunes you'll hear out of Europe all year long. In the middle, you have more hardcore-rooted stuff such as the Such Gold-sounding "No Man's Land", where Andy's vocals break from cleans to scratchy screams at key moments of the songs. Elsewhere on the record this pattern repeats, often highlighting the passion and charisma that he carries himself with. Fortunately, the rest of the band lives up to his talent and plays back with equally good riffs, tight drumming, and solid bass lines to make their overall expression easily comparable with that of Such Gold and The Story So Far. And as you notice, these two bands are the common denominator throughout this review, and that's because The 101's essentially find themselves right in between the infectious in-your-face pop punk tunes of the latter and the more aggressive, pop-hardcore style of the former. The band is fully aware of their similarity to a number of bands, by the way, given that they even have a song they've dubbed "The Four Year Story Of A Hot Water Polar Bear In A Red City So Far", a reference to a number of bands they've shared the stage with in the past.

In the end, "For The Years" isn't a revolutionary album within pop punk by any means. But what it does, it does very well, and far more professionally than the usual pop punk upstarts across the European continent. Massive sing alongs, catchy song structures, and plenty of edge secure a good rating from our side, with a suggestion that this band has plenty of promise, which is why you should check them out right now.

Download: The Corner, Not Like You, Caught Up, Still Distant
For the fans of: Such Gold, The Story So Far
Listen: Facebook

Release date 14.03.2014
White Russian Records / No Panic Records

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