I'm a sucker for aggressive pop-punk. Didn't think I'd be admitting that after really becoming disenchanted with the genre a couple years ago amid all the cookie-cutter filler that bands were repeatedly churning out and passing off as 'gritty pop-punk done right'. Stickup Kid's "Breathing" was the track that lured me back in and I explored more and more to find that I was overly harsh and cynical. And well, wrong. Home Movies are a band that further demonstrates how wrong I was as they blend infectious bangers with a nice, fast-paced energy to keep you going after five tracks. Hell is an EP that provides a great snapshot of what this band, flaws aside, can offer.

Dominic Padilla is a great asset on vocals - intense, emotional, passionate and frustrated. He fuels the band and you can tell how much they rely on him in their fiery disposition. The band take this record to vent and it's good fuel as they craft these tracks to tell their journey in a fiery collection of five emotionally intense pop-punk songs. Tracks like "Hell" and "Fickle" best represent this as uptempo jams meant to spill on life and how we go through its routines. One big takeaway is the breadth of Padilla's stories - well-written, informative and experiential. His lyrics are much more mature than the average pop-punk band and really flow song to song.

These lyrics are smartly caked in between heavy-hitting riffs which add new layers and dynamics to surely please fans of modern mainstays such as The Story So Far and Handguns. They've got a firm grasp on how to come off laid back or approach things out of the pop-punk mold. Overall, it's a very solid mix musically. Stylistically, they offer diversity a la "Faith and Folly" which is grimmer and grungier a la Citizen and Superheaven. It accents the other tracks on the record, which feel a bit underdeveloped and stutter in terms of a complete EP. That aside, Home Movies give you a glimpse into how they're trying to transcend their peers. So far, so good. Eager to hear them flesh their sound out even more on an LP.