Southern California doesn’t play around when it comes to the hardcore punk scene, or any punk scene for that matter.  The origins of hardcore are more geographically closer to the midwest and eastern coast, but the fact of the matter is that once California (specifically Orange County) got ahold of it, some of the best in the business emerged triumphant.  Stick to Your Guns is one such notable example of The OC’s Finest, and for over twenty years now they have been stirring up a brand of hardcore that is equal parts ass kicking and thought provoking.  On Keep Planting Flowers, the five-piece attempt to do a little addition by subtraction.

What I mean to say is that, according to lead guitarist Josh James, “Over the last few years, we really stripped Stick To Your Guns down to the simplest and purest form of expression.”  That means, on the band’s 8th full-length release, the heavy aspects of the band’s music is accentuated in a natural way, without forcing anything or introducing fluff and filler.  “The intention was, ‘How can we intensify the emotion we’re trying to invoke?’,” says James.  The heavy parts are heavier, the punky bits are punkier, and the emotional heaviness is even more poignant.  In a sense, Keep Planting Flowers is Stick to Your Guns turned up to eleven.  Lyrically, the album brings a positive spin on topics that are normally huge downers, like the inevitability of death and the struggle of being in the modern world.  There is a large focus, courtesy of vocalist/lyricist Jesse Barnett, of embracing the struggle and not letting it tear you down.  This is backed up in several spots by outstanding guest vocal spots, courtesy of long-time friends of the band in Terror’s Scott Vogel on “Who Needs Who” and the inimitable Connie Sgarbossa on “H84U.”  

One thing is for certain about Keep Planting Flowers: they really did manage to nail increasing the contrast between the different aspects of the hardcore they have been churning out.  The pit anthems are nearly endless here, from the raucous one-two punch of openers “We All Die Anyway” and “Spineless” to the aforementioned bookends “Who Needs Who” and “H84U,” the breakdowns are brutal and in-your-face, and the galloping punk energy barely takes a break at all through the brief but intense runtime.  On the other end of the spectrum, the melodic sections of the album are distilled as well.  I’ll admit, I can do without the millennial whoops in “Eats Me Up” and the chorus of “Severed Forever” kinda leaves me a little flat, but that’s more due to my personal hangups on clean vocals and not any execution based-flaw.  If you like catchy, anthemic choruses, Keep Planting Flowers has plenty of those too, and they stick like earworms.  For me, even though it kind of sticks out like a sore thumb, the standout of the album is the title track.  It’s definitely something different for the band, but the way they nail the transition from poignant clean guitars gently supporting Barnett’s emotional bellow to full band catharsis is genius, and I wish that in the future they would lean into this style a little bit more.

Keep Planting Flowers is right on par with the trajectory that Stick to Your Guns have been on.  Their tenure is over two decades at this point, but they seem to be ever surpassing their own benchmarks, whether that is the glowing reviews they received on their 2022 release Spectre or touching down in Nairobi, Kenya, and becoming the first American hardcore band to play a show in East Africa.  Here’s hoping the trend continues, because Keep Planting Flowers is an early standout of music this year, and Stick to Your Guns should, well, stick to what they have been doing so far.  It’s working.

— Ian

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Keep Planting Flowers is available now on SharpTone Records.  For more information on Stick to Your Guns, visit their official website.