Speed and melody are this London quartet’s weapons of choice, and they wield them well!
Miss the glory days of Epitaph and Fat Wreck Chords? Diagnostics are just what the doctor ordered. Bridging the gap between skate-punk and melodic hardcore, the six tracks on ‘Thoughts To Forget’ see the London quartet breathing fresh life into these vintage sounds.
For the most part, these guys play seriously fast, and that’s just fine with us. They do slow down for an eerie voiceover on opener ‘Forget’, whilst ‘Thoughts’ belts along in a kind of NOFX-meets-Pennywise style. There’s a brief easycore melodic breakdown of sorts on ‘I Won’t Be Around’, and if it doesn’t make you want to BOUNCE, we feel for you. We truly do.
They really put the pedal to the metal on ‘Not Today’, with some lightning-fast riffing and drumming and a sprinkling of gang vocals, followed by the minute-long sprint of ‘There She Goes’. The closing ‘Raise Your Glass’ ends things on an anthemic note, with a chorus that will no doubt prompt mass audience participation live.
We never actually learnt to skate (terrible sense of balance, y’see), but ‘Thoughts To Forget’ makes us want to grab ourselves some boards and attempt to pull off an eggplant to fakie (even though we’re not entirely sure what that is). Anyway, you get the point. These songs will probably sound even better live, so keep an eye on the links below for future Diagnostics shows, including April 1st at London’s New Cross Inn (with Downstater and One Fall).
‘Thoughts To Forget’ is out now now via Disconnect Disconnect Records – order it HERE.
- Forget
- Thoughts
- I Won’t Be Around
- Not Today
- There She Goes
- Raise Your Glass
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I spend my days teaching English to foreign students, and my evenings attending as many gigs as possible. Raised mainly on a diet of 90s third-wave punk, my tastes have grown to include just about anything from trad ska to thrash metal. The Ramones are my musical gods.
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