East Vancouver’s The Fomites are back with their latest full-length, Smoke A Joint About It, out now via Kinda Cool Records. Fueled by weed, pizza, and trashy pop culture – referencing everything from cannibalistic humanoid underground dwellers to Stephen King’s Tommyknockers – the Canadian three-piece crashes through a dozen tracks blending 90s-style melodic punk rock with B-horror imagery.
“Crashes” might be the operative word here, because despite running for a concise 33 minutes, Smoke A Joint About It loses its kick long before the halfway mark. While the band certainly nails the thematic aesthetic and fast-paced energy on paper, the execution falls flat fast. The primary culprit is a lack of variety: track after track rolls by with near-identical tempos, formulaic riffs, and vocal hooks that struggle to stand out.
If you are a die-hard completist for 90s skate-punk nostalgia with horror themes, there might be a riff or two here to satisfy your palate. But for most listeners, Smoke A Joint About It lacks the dynamic range needed to keep things engaging, leaving it as a middle-of-the-road effort that unlike their joint, burns out early.
