Album Review: Entropic by Hit The Switch (by Dan Peters)

Another month goes by and another band who’ve had a massive hiatus have laid a brand new offering at our feet. In this instance it’s skate punk aficionados Hit The Switch. After a seven year hibernation, the band are back and, not only that, they are on a label that brings joy to my heart with every offering – Bird Attack. With a glowing endorsement like that, I’m going into this review with open arms and the volume up max.

So an entire minute of intro clip seems a little excessive even to someone like me who loves that sort of thing but once that 1 minute mark is passed you’ll be treated to the blisteringly fast riffage and supersonic drumming you’d expect from the band (or you’d expect from a Bird Attack band if this is your first foray into Hit The Switch). ‘Perigee’ seems to deliberately take the 90s skate punk formula and runs with it wholeheartedly with abandon.

Entropic, as a whole, is very much a genre album which will likely, by its nature, be a little divisive. If, on the one hand, if you’re a bit of a skate punk purist and find it difficult to listen to anything without double time drumming then this is an album created especially for you. The template here is very strictly adhered to, if you love that template then this is 30 odd minutes of joy in a bottle. An unending speed trip with chugging guitars, high octane solos and Matt Hawks’ old school melodic vocals. However, if listening to the fastest Strung Out, NUFAN and Lagwagon songs on repeat doesn’t sound like your idea of heaven this may be difficult to get all the way through.

That’s not to say that even if you’re not a diehard there’s not real gems in here that I can’t imagine anyone loving. ‘Down and Out’ is an absolute belter from start to finish and is the track on the album I’ve come to love the most out of the whole record. ‘North Star’ is another cracking tune, with one of the coolest punk solos I’ve heard in a while on it.

Entropic is an album that wants to travel down a very narrow path, and if you’re a fan of that path then you’re going to love this, because it’s start to finish high grade super fast skate punk excellence. But don’t expect any deviation on your way through.

Stream and download Entropic here: https://birdattackrecords.bandcamp.com/album/entropic

Like Hit The Switch here: https://www.facebook.com/hittheswitch.music/

This review was written by Dan Peters.