The punks from Sweden are back once again with their fifth album, Home From Home. This album is packed with thirteen tracks, and brought to us by the folks at Epitaph/Burning Heart.
Millencolin's follow-up album to Pennybridge Pioneers - which is up to this point, without a doubt, their best album - starts exactly where they left off. Thirteen songs packed tight with raw energy, and some of the greatest melodies ever coming out of this genre. While other bands continue to follow the three-chord formula of success brought to us by such bands as Blink 182 and Co., Millencolin continues to churn out some of the greatest melodic punk rock songs today, and they go virtually unnoticed.
The album starts off with a heavier song entitled "Mouse Or Man," and it is followed by an extremely catchy and well written song "Fingers Crossed." From this point on, many of the songs on this album are reminiscent of songs from Pennybridge Pioneers; heavy guitars, pounding drums, and vocals hitting everything at just the right point.
"Punk Rock Rebel" was a song that took me by surprise however, because it didn't follow this pattern the previous songs had. It was as if they took a song they wrote years ago, re-recorded it, and decided to release it now. It sounds very much like their earlier material, with ska-type guitars and riffs. I'm not sure if they wanted to please some of their fans who were disappointed that they weren't writing songs like this anymore, or if they wanted a break on the album to create some sort of mix; but either way I don't think it should have been included. It sticks out like a sore thumb, and maybe that's what they wanted, but it would have been more suited as a b-side on a single. Beyond this point, Home From Home is a stellar record. They definitely haven't slacked off since their last album, and they continue to progress as a band which is always good to see. The whole "punk rock" genre is over saturated with bands that shouldn't even be around, but this is not one of those bands, as they are among the elite in this category.
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