Rebuke

Wouldworks (2010)

Brian Shultz

If you have an endless hankering for a standard fare of fast EpiFat skatepunk with intermittent technical tinges, there's really no reason to act towards Sweden's Rebuke with the very verbal moniker they fly under.

The vocals honestly aren't fantastic; they're vaguely raspy, a little meekly delivered and could use a little more character. It would go a long way to making Wouldworks more effective and stand out with greater personality. In "Wings II: The Bastard Idioms," there are a few lesser moments that fall victim to this. But for the most part, what backs the earnestly scrappy singing is solid enough to make up for those arguable deficiencies.

The technical edges are surely similar to those wielded by Propgandhi, Bigwig or A Wilhelm Scream (take your pick), though it's hard to say if Rebuke integrate these little flares as tightly or cohesively. But even then, they know when a song needs a little extra something; "History Doesn't Repeat Itself… We Repeat History" blasts forth with harder brute force towards its finish. "Take to the Seas" gets adventurous and tries out some slower, more vocal-heavy moments of melody. "Wings III: Driving the Point Home" wraps up the band's trilogy with a more extensive breakdown of the song and it's something I'll hope they explore more often in the future. More often than not the band's kind of on a simpler Satanic Surfers/earlier Lagwagon clip.

"Affection, Abandon, Affliction" is a nice surprise, since Attica! Attica!'s Aaron Scott comes in to sing the bridge; and since the band's playing fast, slightly poppy skatepunk, any sensible modern punk fan will be pleasantly reminded of Scott's former band, Marathon, even if for only a moment's notice. The tighter tech parts are nice, too.

Wouldworks is a patently inoffensive but well-executed revamp of melodic skatepunk and social/personal subjects. It's certainly not the best revamp around, but there's certainly worse.

STREAM
Affection, Abandon, Affliction
Gonzales
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