by DAN SOUTHALL
ORANGE County hardcore crew Stick To Your Guns have been ploughing their positive outlook in musical form for 20 years now. Album number eight isn’t about to see the band playing some progressive masterpiece, but it does see them double down on their heaviest intentions.
Wasting little time, opener “We All Die Anyway” starts off lyrically darker than this band are recognised for. This is quickly turned around on “Spineless”, a track that injects cleaner punk tones while also showing a social bite aimed at no one particular person or group, just a broken society as a whole.
Rallying against societal divides peaks with “Severed Forever” as STYG questions how much longer things can continue the way they are, particularly in their home country. Lyrically things begin to turn from this album mid-point. Gone is the questioning of what can be changed and sweeping positivity comes in.
This is writ largest on the title track, a veritable force of positivity as yet again vocalist Jesse Barnett and Stick to Your Guns remind their audience that despite everything going on in the world right now, you are not alone: despite how you feel in this moment, it never hurts to reach out. It’s an ethos forms the basis of hardcore; another track that hits right in the feels.
Really, this is what Keep Planting Flowers is about. More than just the power of personal positivity, this album is a reach for the positivity of humanity. A reminder that there is always light in the darkness, sometimes it must be sought out harder than other times. With everything seemingly so stacked against us right now, there is no time like the present to change focus and look for the positivity. This always starts close to home, so remember to be a good person and help someone out.
