Upcoming Releases
Los Angeles punk rock band Fire Sale and Vancouver’s The Corps will release their new four-song split, Split Decision, digitally on Friday, September 4, through Negative Progression Records. Vinyl preorders will launch the same day.
Pairing two bands with a shared love of fast, melodic punk, Split Decision gives each group two songs to showcase its own distinct personality. Fire Sale brings anthemic urgency and pointed social commentary to “Kill the Noise” and “Dies Irae,” while The Corps balance breakneck skate-punk energy with vulnerability and comic book-inspired romanticism on “Imposter Syndrome” and “Another World.”
Fire Sale opens the split with “Kill the Noise,” an intensely personal song about the exhausting internal battle that can accompany mental health struggles—and the healing that can begin by confronting those thoughts directly.
“This song is about the daily struggles with mental health and learning to overcome them,” says Fire Sale vocalist Pedro Aida. “There are days when you feel like your brain won’t shut up, as if it’s conspiring against you. I felt really vulnerable writing these lyrics, but in doing so, it became a sort of self-therapy that I didn’t know I needed. I hope listeners find this relatable and that it helps them in their healing journey.”
Musically, “Kill the Noise” may be Fire Sale’s most anthemic, dynamic and nuanced song yet. Its darker moments ultimately give way to self-reflection and a determined search for peace.
The band follows it with the confrontational “Dies Irae,” built around an explosive Matt Riddle bass line and the driving guitars and drums that have become central to Fire Sale’s sound.
“‘Dies Irae’ is a very simple, in-your-face song about our current political and social climate,” Aida explains. “Right now, there are a lot of powers that be who think they can tell you how to live your life—and some who even think you don’t deserve a life at all. It’s a call to stand up for yourself and your neighbors, and to fight back against any injustice.”
Fire Sale first attracted attention as a punk rock supergroup featuring former members of Face to Face, No Use For A Name and The Ataris, along with current members of Down By Law and The Iron Roses. Across a run of releases that includes Dark Hearts, A Fool’s Errand, The Albatross and the Pulley collaboration Split Personality, the band has steadily established an identity that stands on its own.
The Corps pick up the second half of Split Decision with “Imposter Syndrome,” a full-speed account of achieving the opportunity to share stages with your heroes while privately fearing that you do not belong there.
“This song is about feeling lucky enough to be a part of the music industry and playing alongside your favorite artists, while inside, constantly being riddled with anxiety over the fear of being exposed as a fraud,” says The Corps vocalist Danny Garrison.
That conflict fuels one of the split’s fastest songs, turning Garrison’s self-doubt into forward momentum. Sometimes the only way through the uncertainty is to keep moving—and, if necessary, fake it until you make it.
The Corps then change course with “Another World,” a mid-tempo, otherworldly love song that draws on the band’s affection for comics and superheroes while exploring the pain of wanting someone who remains unreachable.
“‘Another World’ is about living with the unbearable knowledge that a certain person, who means everything to you, can never be yours in this universe,” Garrison says.
The result carries intergalactic Descendents energy, imagining a love that may be impossible here but could still exist somewhere beyond this world.
With multiple EPs and albums behind them, The Corps carry on the tradition of fast, melodic Canadian punk shaped by bands including Propagandhi, Lagwagon and NOFX. The group spent 2026 supporting Ignite across Canada and Strung Out throughout Europe, bringing its jean-jacket skate-punk style to audiences on both sides of the Atlantic.
Together, the four tracks on Split Decision make the pairing feel less like two separate releases sharing a record and more like a single, cohesive statement. Both bands write from different sides of the same struggle: the noise in your head, the forces trying to control you, the fear that you do not belong and the longing for a life that feels just beyond reach.
Split Decision track listing:
- Fire Sale — “Kill the Noise”
- Fire Sale — “Dies Irae”
- The Corps — “Imposter Syndrome”
- The Corps — “Another World”
