Pennywise
Unknown Road

THE REVIEW

Ready, go. The striking reverberated piano intro has nothing to do with the rest, but at second 50, Byron on drums makes it clear what we'll be talking about, and with "Unknown Road" (which gives the CD its name), that POWERFUL DRIVE starts, which will characterize the entire project.

"Homesick" helps to clarify the concept, but perhaps making it a bit slower would have highlighted the vocal melody, characterized by excellent tone shifts. Predictable but successful the rhythm change (very Metallica) at the end, which gives a bit of balance to the sometimes overly frantic guitars...

The aforementioned vocal melody, after a start with prominent bass, bursts into "Time To Burn", the most accomplished track of the project. Good old Jim Lindberg, playing with elongated-ending melodies that sometimes overlap, with low tones but cleverly sustained, decides to risk slowing down the punk explosion of guitars and rhythm, but the result is one that stops you from staying still. Fantastic the "middle eight" with all the pounding and choruses à la Rancid, complete with a megaphone.

"It's up to me" seems designed to piss off drummers listening. Here, however, the vocal line slows things down a bit and smells a lot like Bad Religion.

"You Can Demand" feels quite bland to me, especially in the lyrics, with voices not up to par, especially at the end.

"Nothing" clearly picks up the very successful vocal line from track 3, with more rhythmic guitars and breaks and rhythm changes that are never trivial. When the drummer kicks in, the usual turbo comes in. Awful ending.

"Vices": another bland text, but the usual drive guaranteed by the perfect harmony between distorted guitars and drums keeps the spirits up. Another so-so ending.

"City is burning": the interesting initial bass, which makes a dirty-figure also in some verse endings. High-level drumming, with an impressive precision despite the crazy speeds it guarantees. The track is the manifest of the skill of the individual musicians and the blend of the group as a whole. The choruses at the end are a bit clichéd.

"Dying to know" starts like any other song by the great Bad Religion, then my drummer friend makes it more interesting, with the bass often proudly jumping out of the usual distorted guitar riffs. Here both melody and vocal drive work grandly, and the whole package is a true delight for genre lovers. Very varied song that changes unexpectedly towards the end with an excellent crescendo and the usual cut-off ending.

"Tester": another excellent ensemble performance where the guitars stand out, because we've all understood by now that the drummer is a beast. Always a bit the same sauce, but guys, what a drive!

"Try to conform": Voices a bit off and overall, a slightly chaotic but still listenable track trying to vary a bit towards the end.

"Give and Get": I might be boring, but damn how they travel! At minute 1.20, it becomes a Bad Religion song, but the ending is stupendous.

"Clear your head": Nothing new from what's been said before... this track is a mix of all the good things PW can deliver (shame about the slightly off vocals), thumbs up to the drummer, just to clarify the point. At minute 15, there's a ghost track... it's worth getting there. Initial syncopated and engaging, the very short track HITS HARD (what's new) with once well-enhanced and engaging choruses, level guitars... a little gem.

I reviewed this album, my favorite by PW, to fill the void and give due credit to a band that unfortunately never reached excellent levels of popularity but, for musical qualities (in their genre, obviously), has nothing to envy to much better-known colleagues.

Never before in this album have the Americans proved to be so fit, so blended, fast, precise, and badass. This amply compensates (in my humble opinion) for the limitations of a project where the instruments always have the same sounds and the songs vary very little from each other.

Instructions for use of modern Punk rock (or "skate punk", as they say).