Imploders
Imploders
Static Shock Records/Neon Taste Records
16 June 2023

“Imploders are the house band on this sinking ship called Earth. Hardcore punk with an emphasis on the punk. No frills, tricks, or bullshit.” – The Imploders  

The Imploders from Canada are back with a full-length self-titled album on Neon Taste (Canada) and Static Shock (UK). This album has something for most punk audiences. It’s very much hardcore punk, but there are songs with elements of garage in them, like ‘Beatin on the Brain.’ While songs like ‘Cadaver’ have early TSOL vibes (not a huge shock from a song called ‘Cadaver’).

There’s also a Ramones influence trickling through, though it may not have even been directly from The Ramones themselves, but rather influences from bands who have been influenced by The Ramones. “Ramones by proxy,” as Heatwave’s design guru calls it.

The album opens with ‘Scared Stupid’ – it’s a solid instrumental opener that does a great job of building anticipation without lasting too long. It slides right into the second track, ‘Call Your Bluff’. If you’re not directly paying attention to the track listing, it’s pretty easy to miss the transition from intro to song altogether.

The songs are very hook driven, with a lot of riffs too. And the minute something stops you’ve gone onto the next thing.

My overall first impression was that they were clearly influenced by multiple subgenres of punk.

The band said, “You’re sort of right. The influences for this band were pretty much what you’d expect.

Your usual suspects like Black Flag, Circle Jerks, Angry Samoans, Zero Boys – but there was definitely some talk about more contemporary bands like Regulations, Government Warning, Brutal Knights, etc,. before we started.

Whether or not those influences were apparent might be up for debate though. That said, we’re all big fans of rock n roll music in all its facets.

We’re all giant Cheap Trick guys for example but I wouldn’t necessarily site them as a direct influence, although I’m sure some of that might subconsciously creep in despite the initial ‘punk first’ thought process we try to take.”

Those rock n roll influences trickle through in their own way, but it’s part of what makes the songs standout.

When I listened through the album with Adrian (Heatwave’s design guru), he described ‘Beatin on the Brain’ as being like ‘hardcore punk doing a rock n roll song – it cuts out a lot of the bullshit.’ Which lands really nicely as a description for it, in my opinion.

The vibes in ‘Beatin on the Brain’ aren’t worlds away from The Cavemen’s latest album. So, if you enjoyed that or you were really into Dross, this is going to sound great to you. With 16 songs, there’s a lot to choose from here.

Initially, I was a bit torn between ‘Beatin’ on the Brain’ and track 14 ‘What Do You Want’ for our premier. ‘What Do You Want’ is a simple, fast-paced punk song. It’s all down strokes with well-timed tempo changes.

The simplicity of the lyrics makes it easy to sing along with and the tone used when singing makes it get suck in your head easily. It’s a really good example of what the band does well.

Ultimately, I decided on ‘Beatin on the Brain,’ because there’s something really special about it, that I think will speak to listeners from different sides of the Heatwave audience.

There’s a sense of recklessness and self-abandonment in the song. It’s fun and snotty, and full of energy.

I enjoyed their 2021 EP, but their self-titled LP really knocks it out of the water. The mixing on this is fantastic, and everything in the execution seems well-thought out and never forced – the snotty/sarcastic sound is always well-timed, the tempo changes come exactly when you want them for maximum impact. 

The band said, “I don’t think we’ve changed too too much from the 2021 EP to be honest. At least in terms of song-writing. We may have slightly tightened up our songs as we became more self aware of the kind of band we want to be but to me the biggest difference between these two records is definitely the production quality.

When we recorded our 2021 EP we basically just winged it. No one knew what they were doing. We recorded it ourselves in our jam space for less than a hundred bucks.

None of us had any recording experience beyond bedroom demo shit and it was the peak of the pandemic so getting someone in to record us wasn’t really an option. For this LP, the recording process was pretty much the same as the 2021 EP, just supervised by someone (Dylan Frankland) who knew what they were doing and in a real studio.

We still kept everything as simple as possible and used only our own gear so the record would sound as close as possible to what you’d hear seeing us live.”. 

Sure, there’s 16 songs here and that seems like a lot, but these songs are short, fast and entirely free of pretense. They’re tongue and cheek, they’re not trying to be smart or stupid, they’re just exactly what they are.

I had one point where I said ‘Holy shit, I’m three songs in when did that happen’. Of course, I went back and listened again more attentively, but to me this proves that it’s a really good album to casually listen to.

And that’s exactly what I want from any album under the punk umbrella – if you blink, you’ll miss something.

I think this has the ability to appeal to fans of very different subgenres of punk – it has something for people who like garage punk, it has something for people who like hardcore, it has something for people who really worship early 80s punk with reckless abandon – and obviously quite a few things for those of us who enjoy it all.

These guys are coming in fast, so you better get ready!

“We’ll be touring Europe in October to support the record. It’s looking like 15 or 16 shows.

Just a few more loose ends to wrap up but you can expect an official announcement on June 16, the same day the LP drops on both Neon Taste and Static Shock Records.

Get it through your thick skull!” – The Imploders 

-Linsey, Heatwave Editor

Pre-order now (Europe/UK)
Pre-order now (North America)