Scowl Announce New Album Are We All Angels

The hype surrounding Scowl’s newest album, Are We All Angels, is living up to its expectations—so much that it’s no wonder the Santa Cruz hardcore band is flooding our social media pages. I almost feel embarrassed waiting to listen to the full album until now when it was released on April 4th.

With 100% of my attention, the entire album was finally played during my drive home (as anyone knows, this is one of the top ways to properly dive into the works of any new album).

Immediately, Scowl grabs your mind like a hand, leading a strong introduction into the first song, Special, with a heavy drumline acting as a corridor that takes you to the room in which the rich voice of Kat Moss knocks you in. The intro is alluring like a rose but look out for those sharp thorn lyrics like ‘you just want to hear my screams/ just to feel alive/ bring me back to my body’.

As my drive goes on, the album continues, and you’re taken by melodies that swing you around with occasional greetings of harder vocals accompanied with the slow, then quick, tempos of low humming riffs throughout. Does this album make you want to sway, or kick a door down?

It is completely safe to say—both.

These tuneful tracks make you feel like you’re on a carousel in beat, sound, and vocals—going up, down, and all around in vibes. Don't let that confuse you though, because the order in which they all play out is seamless. The need to repeatedly loop the roundabout during Kat’s rippling voice in Fantasy (my favorite), was impossible to ignore.

(I only did it three times).

Although in my car, I still felt the hip-moving aesthetic to the songs Tonight and Let You Down. But I also can’t deny the turning of my wheel getting a bit sharper while head bobbing to Fleshed Out and Cellophane. There’s a melodious art here that you can’t completely categorize because of the dynamic blends of noise packed into this sensual and banger filled masterpiece.

Closing out the album is the track Are We All Angels. Now that is how you leave your listeners. Scowl brings the project to an end with a loud and speedy final goodbye, with one more verse of woozy vocals, finishing with a clean sung outro ‘I’ll extend bloody hands/ violence, not running away’.

It’s no wonder I sat in my car for an extra thirty minutes to finish this one out.

Go kick doors down and sway with Scowl starting their tour on April 11th in New York.

📸 by @richard.mukuze