Album Review: Trucker Speed by From Parts Unknown

From Parts Unknown are a three piece band from Dallas, Texas. Consisting of Ben McCracken on guitar and vocals, Kyle Owens on drums and Chris Parrish on upright bass, they released a new three track EP in February titled Trucker Speed. After learning that the band used an upright bass I was very intrigued to check them out.

Trucker Speed begins with the song Mendoza. Mendoza is a completely instrumental track that serves as a great introduction as to what to expect from From Parts Unknown. It's a really fun one minute and sixteen seconds of superb musicianship from the band, with the upright bass really giving them an element you really don't hear much anymore. The EP's title track gets us started properly. It's a straight forward loud punk rock track. The bass will definitely get a lot of the attention on this song but I was most impressed by McCracken's fantastic vocals, reminding me of Trevor Keith of Face To Face - one of my favourite vocalists in the game. McCracken does a wonderful job of switching between melody and a more ferocious scream effortlessly. Then we have Rad Pitt. The track begins with the slow and somewhat eerie guitar work that slowly builds towards an upbeat ska-punk style section. I certainly wasn't expecting that. The song is kind of a cross between ska and psychobilly music, which isn't really a combination of styles I'd ever expect to hear together and definitely not to mesh so well together. Big props to From Parts Unknown for that! Rad Pitt (much like Brad) goes through a series of different phases that always keeps you guessing. From the eerie beginning to the ska-psychobilly hybrid to some reggae, it's a song that really keeps you on your toes and really keeps your toes a'tapping too.

Trucker Speed is a fantastic introduction to From Parts Unknown. They are a brilliantly unique band who are clearly superb at playing their instruments. This EP has done its job in leaving me wanting to hear more from the band.

Stream and download Trucker Speed here: https://frompartsunknowntx.bandcamp.com/

Like From Parts Unknown here: http://www.facebook.com/frompartsunknowntexas

This review was written by Colin Clark.