Labels: Grind Central Records/Santapogue Media/Suspended Soul Tapes And Records/Zegema Beach Records
Formats: Vinyl/Tape/Digital
Release Date: 08 Jun 2018
Tracklist:
1. Black Lung
2. Delusional//Unapologetic
3. Water Well
4. So Seizure
5. (The Worst Of It Is) You
6. Pause For Death
7. Succubus
8. Dead Forever
Adulting constantly gets in the way of good things! One such thing is time I'd set aside to relax with some great, heavy noise from Canada's Blue Youth. Bloody household appliances! Calm is restored though and there's still plenty of time for me to dive into the band's 2018 album Dead Forever as part of my ongoing ZBR roster review series.
Blue Youth aren't active currently and Dead Forever makes up their second only physical release, having been pressed on vinyl by all of the above mentioned labels as well as being pressed on tape by Grind Central Records.
The time for noisy punk/rock has come and hearing the opening bars of ‘Black Lung’ is the midweek wake-up call I needed. Stylistically, it’s difficult to place Blue Youth with their mix of clean vocals, euphoric screams and up-tempo instrumentation. I guess at a push I’d liken it to Australia’s Jet crossed with Sweden’s The Hives and countrymen Cancer Bats.
One thing I love doing is reading Bandcamp’s recommended bands at the bottom of the page when listening. Blue Youth’s page recommends Whores, Chat Pile, Twin Drugs amongst others, which is pretty good company especially when you consider how good the bass-heavy ‘Delusional//Unapologetic’ is. There’s a bit of sasscore later on as well, which turns into something heavier towards the song’s close.
‘Water Well’ is an atmospheric short-player that curtails some of the album’s early momentum a little bit. I think these songs do play their part on records but can sometimes be a bit out of place. Here it make sense as it leads brilliantly into ‘So Secure’ and with it, another (maybe poorly placed) comparison. That comparison is Turnstile, purely based on the key of the clean vocals that adorn it. I’m probably way off the mark again but hey ho, it’s great all the same.
The stirring piano that opens up ‘(The Worst Of It Is) You’ belies what is a gloriously (and seemingly) mid-paced take on garage-punk/rock. It’s anthemic all around. How Blue Youth isn’t bigger I’ll never know! You might think that ‘Pause For Death’ is an ominous song title, and I guess it does lend itself to a song that’s equally as dark, but it also draws you in further than you were expecting.
The devilish ‘Succubus’ is a song of many parts, from raging screamo to off-kilter progression and driving rock. The fact that it ends on a dime with no notice only adds to it’s allure and before you know it you’re being greeted by the album’s title-track ‘Dead Forever’, which rounds things out with Blue Youth diving back into their noisy/rocking best.
Dead Forever is over far too quickly. It completely puts to shame those albums that are twice as long. Blue Youth may be gone (I don’t know) and if so, they’re not forgotten. Their sound is personified in these eight songs and more people should hear them. Enough said.
You can stream and grab Dead Forever as a name-your-price download or pick up a first-run tape from Blue Youth below:-
If you want a vinyl copy, the only place to pick it up from is Zegema Beach Records. There's a single copy left on their Bandcamp page:-
https://zegemabeachrecords.bandcamp.com/album/dead-forever
Copies are also available from the ZBR CAN/INTL store here - http://www.zegemabeachrecords.com/zegema-beach-releases/blueyouthlp and the US store (both vinyl and tape) here - https://zbrusa.com/collections/zbr-releases/products/blue-youth-dead-forever-12
Blue Youth - https://www.facebook.com/blueyouthsk
Grind Central Records - https://www.facebook.com/grindcentralrecords
Santapogue Media - https://www.facebook.com/santapoguemedia
Suspended Soul Tapes And Records - https://www.facebook.com/SuspendedSoulTapesRecords
Zegema Beach Records - https://www.facebook.com/zegemabeachrecords
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