The BombpopsDeath In Venice Beach

Californian punks The Bombpops are taking us back to the mid 2000s with their forthcoming album titled Death in Venice Beach this March, with notable emo vibes flowing through high-energy tracks.

MORE: KICK OUT THE JAMS With OCEAN GROVE: A Selection Of Oddworld Favourites // THE AMITY AFFLICTION: Smoke ‘Em If You Got ‘Em // POLARIS: Growth, Death & Change REVIEWS: THE AMITY AFFLICTION: Everyone Loves You… Once You Leave Them // SAVIOUR: The Luna Rose // FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH: F8 // SILVERSTEIN: A Beautiful Place To Drown // MY DYING BRIDE: The Ghost Of Orion

Since the band haven’t strayed too far from the musical path that they began playing in 2007, it’s guaranteed that their songs are all boasting with catchy choruses and pop-punk licks that are reminiscent of the era in which they established themselves.

Despite the lyrical themes being notably heavier than what we’ve heard from The Bombpops before, their contagious melodies give the songs an impression that it’s not all dark and dismal, and perhaps it actually will be alright. Named after Thomas Mann’s novel that’s about the cost of an artistic life, The Bombpops have given their own experience of such lives which can be heard during these 12-tracks.

It’s guaranteed that their songs are all boasting with catchy choruses and pop-punk licks that are reminiscent of the era in which they established themselves.

Opening with Dearly Departed which plays as an ode to some notable names that’ve gone down in history, the rhythm section rollicks through the highs and lows of such lives and the legacies that they’ve left behind, before they charge into Double Arrows Down with melodies that spiral through the guitars licking the drum beats.

Beginning Can’t Come Clean with a humorous snippet of the band members arguing, the track flows into a stampeding rhythm section that sounds as though their debate had been resolved before the recording process had begun, for their timing and momentum is tighter than ever. It’s most obvious in Blood Pact for which they deserve recognition, even if it is for being “American maniacs” as sung during the chorus. 13 Stories Down dives into alcoholism and the darkness that it can wreck sufferers with, while Radio Silence delivers a contrasting tempo that encapsulates another sort of revelation that carries through until the closing track, Southbound Stranger, which follows a romantic narrative through a diverse range of both vocal and instrumental time signatures until the guitar’s reverberation brings the album’s full circle to a close.

A compilation of bitter-sweet tracks that could be translated as an open love letter to LA, The Bombpop’s have comprised their latest album with melodious punk hooks and sugar-coated lyrics that’ll have you thinking twice about the price that might accompany living an artistic life.  

STANDOUT TRACKS: Zero Remorse, In the Doghouse, Blood Pact
STICK THIS NEXT TO: Paramore, The Distillers, L7