Album review: Stick To Your Guns – Keep Planting Flowers

Now over 20 years into the game, Stick To Your Guns’ status as a respected name in hardcore isn’t in question. But with so many exciting new bands – Speed, Drain, GEL – causing new waves, it’s arguable that relative veterans like STYG need to be producing music that’s stronger than ever to keep up. Thankfully, Keep Planting Flowers – the Orange County outfit’s eighth full-length – is brilliant, and flies by with all the chaos, carnage and catharsis Jesse Barnett and co. are known for.

Packed with aggression from the get-go, opener We All Die Anyway hammers home its rather bleak message with aplomb, while the cataclysmic Permanent Dark is underpinned by a hefty hardcore stomp. They don’t hang around in getting the job done, with most of the tracks being sub-three-minute blasts of hardcore might, but that’s more than enough time for them to make their mark.

Leaning more on a metalcore sound, Invisible Rain and Severed Forever both stand out for their huge choruses, while closing track H84U – which features a wicked turn from SeeYouSpaceCowboy – is another killer moment. Stripping things back on the title-track, meanwhile, showcases a different side to this band, where things are, for a time at least, a bit quieter, but the solemn atmosphere the song conjures is no less impactful than what’s come before.

A triumphant collection of hardcore fury, Stick To Your Guns are on fine form here. Keep Planting Flowers is the sound of its creators still blooming bright.

Verdict: 4/5

For fans of: The Ghost Inside, Stray From The Path, In Hearts Wake

Keep Planting Flowers is released January 10 via SharpTone.