There was a palpable yearning in Mil-Spec's "The Days Don't End" upon its arrival in April, and the Toronto five-piece's new album Marathon, which strode into the world unannounced early this month, is rife with similar feeling. On centrepiece "Memento," vocalist Andrew Peden loosely quotes Antonio Gramsci as he hollers of "Dark days ahead in the old world / As the new struggles to be born." In this moment, the band aren't frozen by rose-tinted nostalgia, complacency or disillusionment. Rather, they look around, forward, "out in the garden of forking paths" as illustrated on closer "Just Our Imagination," considering "an infinite number of worlds in our grasp."
Co-produced by Mil-Spec and Ned Russin, who once made similarly invigorating punk with Title Fight, Marathon brims with undeniable spirit. Musically, the album kicks the door of 2020's World House clean off its hinges, as Mil-Spec take clear steps forward in their songwriting on the strength of increasingly melodic guitars from Dan Darrah and Matt Laforge, textural moments of backing vocal bliss juxtaposed with Peden's authoritative shout.
Marathon feels like the soundtrack of the way forward, and whichever path is chosen, the journey isn't a sprint, as vocalist Peden makes clear on the title track: "Never got where I hope to get / But I guess it's not over yet."
(Lockin' Out)Co-produced by Mil-Spec and Ned Russin, who once made similarly invigorating punk with Title Fight, Marathon brims with undeniable spirit. Musically, the album kicks the door of 2020's World House clean off its hinges, as Mil-Spec take clear steps forward in their songwriting on the strength of increasingly melodic guitars from Dan Darrah and Matt Laforge, textural moments of backing vocal bliss juxtaposed with Peden's authoritative shout.
Marathon feels like the soundtrack of the way forward, and whichever path is chosen, the journey isn't a sprint, as vocalist Peden makes clear on the title track: "Never got where I hope to get / But I guess it's not over yet."
