Album Review: When The Day Is Done by Territories (by Chris Bishton)

Members of Territories have been playing together for many years. Although the band only formed in 2015, they came out of Canadian street-punk band Knucklehead when they decided they weren't done playing together after they split. They needed a rename in order to reflect the new direction – fiercely melodic, anthemic punk – that they were now set to play.

It led to the new band and now this 10", six song EP When The Day Is Done – the latest release as Territories after their S/T debut album in 2018, along with a few follow up singles.

The first song is Second Son. There's some Bouncing Souls influence in there, obviously always a good thing, but then there's also evidence of their street-punk sound from their Knucklehead days. It's catchy and energetic and picks up perfectly from where the debut album left us.

The second track is Defender. This was always a favourite song of theirs for me. It was already released as one of the aforementioned singles last year, so I'm already familiar with it and hearing it again, it sounds so good. The song is soft, but still fast and gritty enough to have that punk edge with singalong harmonies. SOS then wraps up the first side.

The first song on the second side is The Lockdown. You'd obviously be forgiven if you assumed this was going to be about COVID and the associated closure of swathes of shops, businesses, music venues etc. But it's not. It's about the drills kids do when there's a mass shooting at a school and a call to end gun violence.

It's a chilling subject and a brilliant song. For me, it has a kind of Americana vibe to it, something that seems appropriate since most associate mass shooting tragedies with the US. There's clear lyrics here, painting a picture of kids being told to stay away from windows, turn off sound from phones and not make any noise etc. The repeated line "the kids say no, the lockdown's gotta go" remains in my head hours after listening to it.

The penultimate track is Welcome Home. Lots of harmonies and opportunities for singalongs in this, before concluding with Quit This City, another I'm already familiar with as it was previously released as a single. It's a cracking way to end, not least as it's about getting away and having a new start, before it's too late – a subject so many of my friends have mused about these last few months since lockdown (the COVID one, not the mass shooting one).

They haven't released an enormous amount of stuff because they're still a pretty new band, but I really love Territories and this EP is as good as everything before. I hope the inclusion of a few songs that had already been released was just to bring some of their more recent songs together. Even more so, I hope it means they've got more songs in them that will result in a new LP sometime soon. I've got my fingers crossed.

Stream and download When The Day Is Done on Bandcamp here.

Like Territories on Facebook here.

This review was written by Chris Bishton.

Album Review: Under Tension by The Drowns (by Chris Bishton)

I first came across Seattle's The Drowns a couple of years ago. I was trying to get hold of a copy of another album, from another band in the US and, in passing, one of the guys mentioned The Drowns. They were about to bring out their debut album and he would be doing some distro, so did I want a copy? I'd never heard them before, but his exact words were "it's damn good," so of course, why not? I took a flyer on it and grabbed a copy. Never a truer word spoken! The Drowns are indeed damn good!

The members of band themselves are no newcomers. Previous bands they've played in include The Briggs, The Shell Corporation and Success. The Drowns’ sound certainly draws on some of these elements – fast, catchy, punk with sing-along anthems sung mostly with a gravelly vocal that I love.

The first track on Under Tension, Black Lung, sets the tone. Street punk, fast guitar and the raspy cry of "yeah! yeah" that then lends itself to a track that will be an instant sing-a-long classic.

This is then followed by a slight shift. Them Rats has the same fast tempo and harmonic vocals, but whilst it is a punk track, it's an oi! infused sound that sits somewhere between Booze & Glory and Rancid. It catches me slightly by surprise, but again it's easy to imagine a hot, sweaty crowd shouting along to this.

Wolves On The Throne then switches to a crisper sound, with a cleaner cut vocal, but which features a "woah-oh-oh" finish.

Hold Fast was a track that was released on the streaming sites before the album itself so I know what I'm getting with this and it comes before One More Pint and Wastin' Time. All are absolute bangers – flashing guitar and harmonies with those raspy, gruff vocals that sounds like a morph between an American-accented Frankie Stubbs and, dare I say it, Lemmy.

In between these tracks are Demons – another that was released online last year – and Cue The Violins. These are more jangly and the vocal shifts in tone again as the band continue to switch up the lead vocalist. They too are fast, but they remind me more of the The Undertones complete with Fergal Sharkey's voice! Less growly than some of the other tracks, but they have the harmonic sound and sing-a-long choruses.

A cover Jimmy Cliff's classic The Harder They Come is given the punk makeover towards the end of the record (and who doesn't love hearing punks covering these sort of tunes?) before the album concludes with The Unknown and Battery Street.

This last song is possibly my favourite. It gives that nod to the Oi!/Rancid sound and parts of it are very stripped down with just a simple drum beat and guitar as the vocals take primary focus. I can imagine the band finishing their gigs with "I know who I am… I know where I'm from" being screamed by everyone in the room as the ultimate "slow it down… thank everyone for coming… build it up to a crescendo" song.

There's a lot of bands from Seattle that I'm loving at the moment – The Subjunctives, Burn Burn Burn, Dead Bars – all of which released killer albums last year. The Drowns are the latest from the city to carry on this trend.

Under Tension is their second album in less than two years and along the way they've released a couple of singles and toured the US, Europe and Japan. No one can accuse them of not working hard. They've already announced they're back in Europe to play the Rebellion, Brakrock and Punk Rock Paradise festivals in the summer. Hopefully they'll add some club gigs in as well. I'll keep my eyes peeled.

Until then, I'll have Under Tension on a pretty constant repeat. It's only mid-January, but I'll call it now – the record will easily be in my top five releases of the year.

Stream and download Under Tension here.

Like The Drowns here.

This review was written by Chris Bishton.