Drain – …Is Your Friend (Review)

Ohhhh, another friend request. This time it’s from the Californian Hardcore powerhouse that is Drain. After establishing themselves as one of the most furious contemporary live bands in hardcore today, the three piece led by Sammy Ciaramitaro returns with another lesson in raw energy and excitement. But how does it hold up against their previous outings Living Proof and California Cursed that put the band on the map and made them one of the modern era’s household names?

Being known for keeping things straightforward and concise, the records opener “Stealing Happiness From Tomorrow” surprises by exceeding the four minute mark, starting with a slick bass intro before kicking into gear with pulsating grooves, thrashy guitar riffs and Sammy’s signature screams. The opener serves as a strong introduction and gets the energy flowing with its dynamic tempo switches and high octane delivery by Sammy and pumping breakdowns. Drain may not be for the children but definitely for the pit, ya’know?! Compared to their previous outings, …Is Your Friend ramps up the catchiness in tracks like “Living In A Memory” and “Who’s Having Fun” with the incorporation of more prominent clean vocals, reminiscent of skate-punk aesthetics, offering a more diverse listening experience than before.

However, the bread-and-butter-exercises for Drain are still pit anthems such as the stomping “Scared of Everything” and “Nothing” or the soon-to-be-fan-favorite “Loudest In The Room“. Special shout out also belongs to Cody Chavez for always adding small but effective 80s thrash leads akin to Sucidial Tendencies into the songs to keep up the dynamics and increase the intensity. Maybe even more than in the past, these thrash influences have been pushed more to the forefront as in “Nothing But Love” with its Anthrax inspired verses and the pulsating bass lines toward the end or the generally fast paced “Can’t Be Bothered“.

The songwriting really shows a significant improvement compared to their past two records as the songs feel more compact, though-out and anthemic without losing the intensity the band is known for. While the amount of classic breakdowns has also been decreased, the approach to create faster and more refined songs clearly works well here and when the breakdowns hit, they hit. The amount of annihilation these songs will unleash in a live setting can only be estimated. But this record really makes you wish for a Drain show coming near you soon.

As a long-time fan of the band, chances are you’ll be a little surprised as one could argue that Drain “commercialized” their sound a bit more on …Is Your Friend. But what might scare of a lot of die-hard hardcore fans on paper actually works much better than one could have thought. This record is pure fun and the songs are delivered with such urgency that you can’t help but bang your head, sing along and feel excitement when listening to these 27 minutes of pure positive energy.