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Nightmarathons

Hidden Vigorish

Written by: PP on 03/01/2023 11:27:55

"Hidden Vigorish" is the sophomore album by Pittsburg, Pennsylvania's Nightmarathons. Their debut album "Missing Parts" is a criminally underrated gem from three years ago, full of glorious shout-out-out melodies in no-frills punk rock format that would make basement shows go wild in a sing-along. It appears the band has fine-tuned their approach for the new album, and now sounds like Against Me! somewhere circa "Searching For A Former Clarity"-era. Raw, passionate vocals and a slightly slower tempo results in an anthemic sound where multiple vocalists contribute to a rich, loud expression that just feels so damn upbeat and cheerful.

At the same time, the record's production has been left wonderfully unpolished. Its edges are rough, but these serve to highlight the rowdy atmosphere that encompasses the record. As a result, songs like "Enough" and "Wrong" are awesome displays of honest emotion with hearts on their sleeves, containing some of the best sing-alongs of the record. Meanwhile "Senseless" is like straight outta Against Me!'s repertoire before they went mainstream with their sound, but without sounding derivative or dated at all.

Melodic charge, buzzing distortion, and vibrant sing-alongs are the name of the game here. The songs are simplistic no-frills punk rock, sourcing influence also from the likes of Direct Hit!, Latterman, and perhaps even Pkew Pkew Pkew (see "Bridge"), but they are also infectiously catchy throughout. The fact that they fully utilize three different vocalists means the songs also feel varied, which is a must when you're writing this type of punk rock.

The bright melodies even have hints of Anti-Flag going on with them occasionally, just without the overtly political punk vibes, allowing for some huge sing-alongs from time to time. Most importantly, they are consistently great throughout the album, save for maybe "Deadline", which is the only song where the melody is a bit of a miss. Otherwise, it's ten songs full of anthemic sing-along bangers for your next basement shows, or perhaps FEST or a similar festival that specializes in this type of material. It's a growing mystery to me how they continue to be undiscovered by the scene at large.

Download: Wrong, Enough, Senseless
For the fans of: Against Me!, The Holy Mess, Direct Hit!, Latterman, Pkew Pkew Pkew, Anti-Flag
Listen: Facebook

Release date 26.10.2022
A-F Records