30 Miles
The Smiles Of Rage & Paranoia

LA RECENSIONE

I won't deny it, I've always liked chaotic bands. Those that make more noise and involve you more. The case of 30 Miles is one of these and even though I was initially skeptical due to a bio mentioning their version of "Hey There Delilah" by the Plain White T's, I soon changed my mind.

This Florentine trio, born in 2009 with a self-produced EP to their name, really knows what they're doing. Just listen to the track that gives the album its title - "The Smiles Of Rage & Paranoia" - to understand what we're talking about: a combo made up of unscrupulous teenagers, who, with instruments in hand, unload unlimited tension and energy. Stop and go, raw sounds, and a vocal tone that's unusual but likable; this is the essence of this album, fast enough to blow your hair back and clear enough to complete the task with extreme ease. At times it’s melodic Californian hardcore and at others rock'n'roll. The album is at its best whenever the band speeds up the tempo, which happens very often within the proposed tracklist.

Looking for a possible list of names, I'd say early Billy Talent and the Subways during the "Rock & Roll Queen" period, the former for energy and the latter for that rock attitude that was so appealing. The lyrics are a continuous succession of metaphors, rhymes, and similes that make the concepts even more interesting, with social and philosophical themes, and as they themselves say, they have "a weakness for the psychology of dream interpretation based on their own theories". In short, a psychiatry production, to be honest. At this point, the natural question is what to expect from 30 Miles in the future? It's hard to know; there are too many ingredients in the pot to have clear ideas about it, so we wait and see. For now, we make do with this excellent album; that's the only certainty. Young rebels grow up, and how they grow.