Marathon

With the collective benefit of several years in different kinds of punk bands (None More Black, De La Hoya, Standfast) tucked nicely under their studded belts, the five members of Marathon put it to great use (in other words knowing how to get right the kind of music that hundreds of mall punk bands get so very wrong) on their self-titled full-length debut. The album is a tribute to the screaming aggressive melodic music of vanguard bands like Bad Religion and Strung Out, with healthy doses of more mainstream punk bands like Rise Against and Alkaline Trio thrown into the mix. Not only do Marathon pull it off on a musical level, the songs are about bigger world issues than hard luck relationships and the mundane trials and tribulations of being a young man growing up in the suburbs. A remarkably good debut that shows it is possible to play this kind of music and say something at the same time.