ATP! Album Review: The Bronx – IV

It would be tempting to think that punk and mariachi are separate entities, but The Bronx have proven their musical flexibility in the past by producing three albums of the former genre and two albums of the latter. Their fourth punk effort sees Matt Caughthran and the gang that aren’t actually from the Bronx tackle their flagship genre once more.

The sound of The Bronx is undeniably fun, and first track ‘The Unholy Hand’ introduces that perfectly in every instrument - from the guitars shooting out riffs that warrant an instant grin to the vocals that mash catchiness and gravel in a way that can just do no wrong. In fact, there’s a lot about The Bronx that calls back to the grunge movement of Nirvana and The Pixies; ‘Too Many Devils’ for example, sounds like it could have been taken from In Utero. This takes nothing away from the music however, it’s powerful, it has a killer hook and from start to finish it’s captivating as all hell.

The album as a whole is technically brilliant. The riffs are intricate, the drum fills are perfectly timed and are enough to send fists pounding, and everything slots together to make a record that’s both rough, heavy and incredibly clear, all while keeping its energy intact and its quality constant from start to finish. It’s hard to find any real flaws with this album, it just works, and it works well. Even the moments that differ from the rest of the record, such as ‘Torches’, which is about as Weezer and Weezer themselves, is as powerful as it is different, and, as if the Mariachi albums didn’t tell the listener this enough, that The Bronx are a very flexible band, and their new album is worth going head over heels for.

5/5

Edward Strickson

IV will be released on February 5th via White Drugs/ATO Records.