Shortly after Atreyu‘s “hiatus” (*cough cough* BREAKUP), vocalist Alex Varkatzas revealed his new project. Twitter told us:

“Painting and jamming demos my new musical partner in crime just wrote. Short fast heavy thrashy punchy metal. Blood pumping music. I feel alive.

Oh sorry, my partner in madness is Brandan Schieppati the singer of Bleeding Through. He plays guitar, I cuss. I think he may cuss a lil too.”

Oh, so it’ll be Atreyu and Bleeding Through all over again. Didn’t see that one coming.

More news on the duo as, well, more news surfaces.

The first time I heard Cobra Skulls was in 2008. I was searching iTunes for something new and found “Sitting Army,” their debut album. After reading over the song names, all of them contain the word “cobra”, I figured the music would be as cheesy as their song titles but I sampled some of them anyway. I’m glad that I did because I was pretty excited by what I heard and have been listening to the band ever since.

To me, Cobra Skulls are a bit of a throwback to the punk of the mid nineteen nineties and I mean that as a compliment. The songs are well polished but in no way are they pop-punk, the lyrics are inspired by politics and social injustices and there was something interesting about the vocals. It took me a while to figure out why Devin Peralta’s voice felt so familiar but it eventually hit me. To Me, he sounds a lot like Jack Grisham, not as much from his days in T.S.O.L. but more like he did when he was fronting The Joykiller from ’95 through ’98.

“Bringing The War Home”, a five song e.p. is the group’s first release on Fat Wreck Chords, they signed with the label last March and I must say that I have been looking forward to this album for several months. Now that I have it, I’m both very impressed and slightly let down.  Let me explain…

I’ll start with the positives.

If you like Cobra Skulls, you will like this e.p.. There is not a bad song in the bunch. Lyrically they tackle topics like immigration (“Ice In The Night”), and war (“White Hot Sand” and “Doomsday Parade”) and musically they have never sounded better.

The first song, “Doomsday Parade” and the closer “Life In Vain” are the more rockin’ tracks, similar to some of the songs found on their previous album, “American Rubicon.”

“Ice In The Night” has a slight rockabilly sound to the guitar and “Hot Sand” has a slower verse and faster chorus set up to it. The other song is a very well done cover of “Give You Nothing” by Bad Religion.

Even though they do a great job with the song, the inclusion of it on this e.p. is the reason that I was a bit disappointed with “Bringing The War Home” as a whole. The Cobra Skulls version of “Give You Nothing” has already been released, for free on “Germs Of Perfection: A Tribute To Bad Religion” a few months ago and to me it just seems odd and unnecessary to put it on this album. I guess if you are a big fan and somehow missed the song when it was given away then you will be happy that “Give You Nothing” was added to this release but for me, I would have preferred another Cobra Skulls original song in place of it.

Overall, this is another great Cobra Skulls release and I’m looking forward to hearing their next album. Here’s hoping it’s a full length and not another e.p.

**The Album Reviews published on Dying Scene are written and submitted by fans of punk music, just like you. If you disagree with an album’s rating, feel free to voice your opinion and give it your own rating in the comments. If you’d like to submit your own review do it here.

San Francisco punk act Dead To Me have announced that they are in the studio.

“Recording with the new line-up for the first time. Good times.”

That’s all we got for now but we’ll keep you updated.

The band released their latest 7-in ““Wait for it” last September on Shield Recordings.

Remember hearing about Tom DeLonge’s ambitious movie project related to his side-project Angels & Airwaves? That’s okay if you don’t remember it, since it has been foggily detailed. But this movie, called “LOVE”, is set to premiere next month at the Santa Barbara Film Festival, on the 2nd, 4th, and 5th of February to be precise. Check it if you want to show Mr. DeLonge some love (haha, see what I did there?), or if the trailer piques your interest.

Still not sure what the movie is supposed to be about, even after reading the official plot of the movie:

“After losing contact with Earth, Astronaut LEE MILLER becomes stranded in orbit alone aboard the International Space Station. As time passes and life support systems dwindle, Lee battles to maintain his sanity – and simply stay alive. His world is a claustrophobic and lonely existence, until he makes a strange discovery aboard the ship. Driven by the powerful music of ANGELS & AIRWAVES, LOVE explores the fundamental human need for connection and the limitless power of hope A high-impact visual adventure, that resonates a common truth, that everyone has a story to tell and something even greater to leave behind.”

It will be interesting, I can tell you that.

Angels & Airwaves released the album Love last Valentine’s Day and its sequel, aptly titled Love Part 2, will be out March 22nd.

[Read more…]

Canadian hardcore punk act Comeback Kid has another music video from their latest release Symptoms + Cures. This time, it is the song “G.M. Vincent & I”. If you want to watch it, all you have to do is “Like” Comeback Kid on Facebook. Easy as pie.

Comeback Kid released Symptoms + Cures August 31st, 2010 on Victory Records. (US), Distort Records(Canada).

We’ve been talking about Belgian punk rockers State Of Mine getting ready to release their debut album Accelerate at the end of the month. They have posted another song off this upcoming release on their MySpace. It is called “Bladderburst”. Give it a listen.

Accelerate will be released January 29th on Kickass Records.

Chris McCaughan of The Lawrence Arms did a solo, acoustic version of The Lawrence Arms song “Fireflies” and you can check out a video of the performance right here.

McCaughan has a solo side-project called Sundowner, for those not in the know.

[Read more…]

2011 may have already started but a guy named Derek from KROQ.com has posted an interesting list of new and upcoming releases called “55+ Rock Albums Expected In 2011”. Rise Against, Social Distortion, The Offspring, Blink-182, Pennywise, Face to Face, Green Day, Sum 41, Sublime With Rome, Flogging Molly and Unwritten Law are among the top 55+ punk rock bands in the list with new releases coming out this year. Not that this means much to those in the punk scene but slightly interesting nonetheless.

Here’s what Derek from KROQ had to say, “As the hourglass ran out on 2010, several of us took time to look back on an amazing year in music. Moving on to 2011, it looks like we’re getting back-to-back years of greatness. Whether you’re into alt-rock, indie-rock, or rap-rock, 2011 looks swimmingly terrific.  Names like 311, Foo Fighters, Red Hot Chili Peppers and No Doubt should give you a scale of just how much awesome music we have to look forward to. Take a look at my list of albums scheduled for 2011.”

Maybe not for the bands he specifically mentions but I agree, this year does look “swimmingly terrific”. For the complete top 55+ list, go here.

Next up in our label spotlight series are the folks over at Death To False Hope Records.  Co-Owner, Scotty Sandwich, gave us the run down of how DTFH operates.  The label itself has been responsible for some great punk-rock releases including Hold Tight’s “Cant Take This Away”, the Ascetic Parade album, “Durham Has A Skyline Too” and bunch of others. They’ve also been responsible for great compilations including the Death To False Hope Fest sampler which included great bands, some not on that particular label.

Dying Scene got to know the label and Scotty confirms Nick Woods of Direct Hit claims that Ryan from Mixtapes has an affinity with ICP.  Read the full interview here.

[Read more…]

100% independent Australian label, PEE Records are streaming all releases of the past 12 months in their entirety on their Bandcamp page.  If you like what you hear then you can purchase it right there and then and receive a free download as thanks for your purchase!  Some of the albums include:

One Vital Word – “Early Days”

Safe Hands – “Oh The Humanity”

Part Time Killer – “Fuck The World”

Driven Fear – “Society’s Finest?”

Damn The Empire – “With Trends Like These”

The label will be adding more releases from their back catalogue in the future so keep checking back for updates.