Frenzal Rhomb

It would be easy for the uninitiated to dismiss Frenzal Rhomb and throw them into the bucket of playful pop-punk epigones from Australia.

While their sound does incorporate the key ingredients of what makes the likes of The Offspring, Bad Religion, NOFX and Blink 182 appealing and palatable, all of which they have toured with, it is the mélange of intelligence, humour, pisstaking and poking fun, based on the foundation of having a social conscience and a penchant for romance veiled by loudmouthery, along with a tongue firmly placed in cheek that makes Frenzal Rhomb a unikum – one that convinced Fat Mike to take them under Fat Wreck Chords wings in 1995 before they meandered via Sony to Epitaph Records.

Twenty-five years in with many hospitalizations along the way (with everything from broken drumming arms and detached guitar–playing retinas to an actual pig-borne tapeworm in the lead singer’s brain), tours across the world, cross pollinations and trading oozin’ aahs with the who-is-who of Californian pop punk royalty and legendary stories galore to fuel and match and give depth to their song and album titles, they have refined their catchy take on pop-punk on their ninth studio album, which was recorded by Jason Livermore and Bill Stevenson of The Descendents and formerly Black Flag: Twenty songs clocking in at just over thirty minutes – short and to the point. If you are remotely into three-part vocal harmonies paired with catchy and upbeat tunes and peppered with smart lyrics, this will be right up your alley.

An excerpt of the new album along with a video can be checked out:

here

Frenzal Rhomb will be celebrating the launch of their album with a tour of Australia, details of which can be found:

here

7.5 / 10 — T