Shook Ones

With a running time of just over 23 minutes, it’s obvious pretty early on that on their sophomore disc Bellingham, WA’s Shook Ones are not really into pissing around and dragging songs out any longer than is necessary. Taking their cues form the musically efficient American hardcore bands of the 1980s, the band make maximum impact in minimal time. Although barely old enough to have ever attended an all-ages show when Gorilla Biscuits or Black Flag, or even Lifetime for that matter, were tearing shit up, they’re adroit students of the melodic hardcore genre. But rather than simply rip off those bands or take the framework they established and bastardised it for the sake of commercial acceptance, they honestly get what those bands were trying to do pay tribute to it by bringing a modern edge to it.