M Section

Eat Your Feelings [EP] (2015)

Ricky Frankel

It’s been two years since Santa Rosa, California’s M Section self-released their full length M Section vs The Immortal Jellyfish and this summer the band came out with a five-track EP they call Eat Your Feelings.

This time around M Section seems to have added a lot more hardcore to their overall thrashy sound. This EP is much rawer. You get a lot of that especially in the song “Shark Farmer” where the lead singer is yelling the lyrics and the chord progressions he sings over are on the simpler side for an M Section release. But the band still kept that massive intensity they always bring to their tunes with their signature fast and abrupt guitar riffs and hard-hitting drum fills during their instrumental interludes.

Something that I have always enjoyed about this band is their ability to not just stick to one sub-genre in their songs. Again, there’s a solid amount of hardcore and thrash on this EP, but M Section manage to spice things up by incorporating a lot of metal, most notably in the track “Good Neighbor.” Especially during the chorus of this song, the lead guitarist plays these wailing riffs while the lead vocalist sings the anthemic melody. There is also a killer guitar solo crammed with high bends and pull-offs. There are also sweeps and small '80s metal-style whammy bar bends -- both are pretty rare to find on a punk record these days. And because the gain and treble on the guitars are so high, that makes them contrast quite well with the pretty intense bass line.

M Section have always self-released cleverly written and well-produced tunes that consistently shred. Eat Your Feelings is another solid EP in their discography. It should be very interesting to what they do next. This band is a prime example that shows that DIY punk isn’t dead.

You can check this EP out here.