Band: Mil-Spec
Album: World House
Genre: Melodic Hardcore Punk
Country: Canada
Release Date: 25th of September, 2020
Released via: Lockin’ Out Records
Cover Artwork: © Lockin’ Out Records
For a really long time I believed that the Melodic Hardcore game, after genre pioneers like Verse, Another Breath or Turning Point was now somewhere secretly buried and since then has only produced trivial stuff. But now I’ve found a band that, with the exception of Fury maybe still, has convinced me of the opposite with their current album and breathes new life into this genre that has been declared dead. I’m talking about the Canadians Mil-Spec and their debut longplayer World House who already picked me up completely on the first run and in a pleasantly emotional way took me back to my youth days for almost half an hour.
World House comes around the corner with 8 tracks, which get close to you from the beginning and at the same time, with striking scream vocals, gives the listener a good portion of frustration. The voice quickly stays in your head and changes between calmer moments and angry outbursts around. The aggressive parts clearly get the upper hand and are the center of the record besides a high dreamy catchiness. In addition, the guitar playing on the album is really catchy too and ignites a lot of melodies that make the heart beat faster and absolutely carry you away. Bass and drums are also of good quality, but could be a bit more expressive in the future to give the sound even more finesse. Both instruments manage to be led by guitar and vocals throughout, but get a bit lost due to the good work of the rest.
The songwriting for a release in this genre is well done and very enjoyable, especially when considering a debut. It can easily compete with bigger acts, at least with their beginning stuff. Only the tempo could be increased a little bit for my taste, in the future, because most of the tracks are more in midtempo. Although this somehow also fits to the otherwise really catchy sound of Mil-Spec. However, a more dynamic contrast to the partly dreamy passages would be a welcome alternation to keep the listener on the hook for a longer period of time, because after 10 runs at the latest World House has been listened to completely. But the lyrics and various vocal interludes, which you can easily remember and sing along, are absolutely great.
Although I only came to Mil-Spec with this album and can’t draw any deep comparisons to the previous EP’s, it seems that when you look at the short band vita, you are not too late to take the Canadians to your heart in time. The band delivers one hit after the other on World House, of which “Where I Was From” could pick me up the most, as the catchiness is simply biggest here and the lyrics really appeal to me.
Since September 25th you have the possibility to purchase the album on LOCKIN’OUT RECORDS in two different vinyl versions, which I can recommend without hesitation, because what is delivered on World House is simply pure entertainment in terms of emotional, aggressive and above all melodic punk sound. As a genre fan of Mid 2000 hardcore you should definitely check out the record and let yourself be really swept away by the sound. Mil-Spec are living proof for me that Melodic Hardcore can still seriously appeal to emotions in 2020 and at the same time sound musically convincing. So if you need a change from listening Have Heart and others, you should definitely try World House.
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