Album Reviews

Forty years since they started and seven years since their last album, Before The World Caves In marks album number ten for Good Riddance, the Santa Cruz melodic hardcore punk mainstays.

Over the course of thirteen tracks, the band does what they’ve always done best. Take the one-two punch of opener ‘There’s Still Tonight’ and ‘In Pieces’: the drums race as if they’re chasing someone down, both songs pack solid riffs, and Russ Rankin’s gritty vocals once again scold everything that’s wrong with the world. With plenty to be angry about right now, a new Good Riddance album has rarely felt more timely.

As always, Good Riddance masterfully weave between melodic songs (‘No More System To Believe In’, ‘Drive Faster’) and more abrasive tunes (‘Poverty Of Language’, ‘Thoughts Words Scars’), sometimes combining the two within the same song. It’s a formula that has always worked for them. And it still does.

If that sounds dismissive, it’s not meant to. Before The World Caves In more than delivers and stands as a worthy addition to the band’s discography. And I, for one, will never tire of these gentlemen’s take on hardcore punk.

Before The World Caves In track listing:

1. There’s Still Tonight
2. In Pieces
3. Poverty Of Language
4. No More System To Believe In
5. All Just Rain
6. To Suffer Is The Name
7. Green Fields
8. Posse Comitatus
9. Devoid Of Faith
10. Drive Faster
11. Thoughts Words Scars
12. No Imperfect Way
13. What Kind Of Day Has It Been