As a teenager I used to gush over punk rock albums, and somewhere along the way my preference in music changed. I abandoned and dropped punk rock like a bad habit and haven’t revisited since. Hostage Calm has successfully reinstated my liking of punk rock with their third full-length album, Please Remain Calm, released on Oct. 9. This album is the type that you want to have on repeat where the catchy lyrics become etched into memory. It has a great number of ups and downs that keeps your attention and did not lack in the technical department at all. Hostage Calm did not make a vanilla sounding punk rock album.
“The ‘M’ Word” featured guest musicians Gordon Withers on cello, Ron Rolling on trumpet, and Katie Lynch on violin. This track really stands out because it takes a completely different turn from the rest of the release. This slower and more melancholy song even had some upbeat melodies thrown in, and it contained all elements of a great track. The vocalists’ ability was flaunted on “Patriot,” since most of the track was in an a cappella style. Each singer came together creating a great harmony, and I really enjoyed how most of the track only had bells backing up the vocals.
Most of the time, bands of this genre have an uncanny ability to sound like every other act that has been there and done that. In any art form it doesn’t take much to make your work sound unique, and Hostage Calm has executed that really well. The quintet integrated other instruments not typically found in this genre within their work, and maintained an even balance between the instruments and vocals throughout the disc.
In A Word: Noteworthy
