Pennywise

Reason To Believe

Written by: PP on 05/04/2008 17:03:00

Pennywise is the latest band to give away their music for free. The band struck a record contract with the newly formed Myspace Records, which promised to give away \"Reason To Believe\" for free to anyone who added some company (whose name I have forgotten) as a friend. The promotion was a massive success and the album was downloaded over 400,000 times on release, marking it as one of the most successful Pennywise albums of all time. Moreover, \"Reason To Believe\" is also the best Pennywise album since 2001\'s \"Land Of The Free\".

The record is jam packed with the precise skate punk awesomeness that Pennywise has been known for the better part of the last 15 years. Before the release of the album, the band\'s bassist Randy Bradbury said that \"Reason To Believe\" was intended to be more like the old school Pennywise albums. That he got right. Although the band hasn\'t changed almost at all since their 1991 self-titled debut featuring pure So-Cal skate punk, the trend has been towards massive choruses spiced with gang vocals and plenty of speeding fines for the band\'s two guitarists. On \"Reason To Believe\", all those aspects are brought to spotlight, as the album is also the fastest, heaviest and catchiest Pennywise album in many years. Especially the second half of the album brings back \"About Time\" memories in many places, whilst the first half is more like \"Land Of The Free\" except with less nasal vocals. The Pennywise guitar distortion is back too throughout the album in the best mid 90s manner.

The record is full of fantastic songs, making the album a must-buy for any punk fan out there, which is presumably why the band felt safe about giving the album away for free. When you hear songs like \"One Reason\", a crushingly fast, instantly infectious mammoth of a punk rock song, you wanna instantly march into the store and purchase the record on CD. Most importantly, songs on \"Reason To Believe\" are memorable. Where \"The Fuse\" had you rocking out for a week or two and then had you forget about the songs, \"Faith & Hope\" and \"Something To Live For\" will stay in your record player for the remainder of the year.

\"Reason To Believe\" is the new quintessential Pennywise album to own since \"About Time\", \"Full Circle\" and \"Land Of The Free\". There aren\'t any surprises, you know what you\'re going in for, and the reason why it still works is because the songs are awesome: \"Oh shit here we go again, gonna kick it as long as we can\", the band claims on \"(Intro) As Long As We Can)\", continuing \"We don\'t wanna hear what you say [...] and no we\'re not gonna change\". That\'s a relief in today\'s industry when band\'s abandon their roots all too easily.

8

Download: One Reason, All We Need, Affliction
For the fans of: Bad Religion, Propagandhi, Strike Anywhere, No Use For A Name
Listen: Myspace
Buy: iTunes

Release date 25.03.2008
Myspace Records

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