From the moment I got into punkrock and hardcore back in the mid-nineties, I don’t think I ever fully grasped the concept of emo. To my ears, most of the music I was listening to oozed emotion. Whether it was anger, angst, hate, love, melancholy, hope(lessness) or feeling left out, I always felt that the best punk and hardcore bands have that emotional edge: they feel real, and whatever emotions they convey, they feel authentic, making them stand out from most mainstream music. As such, I struggle considering emo to be a distinct genre, but rather an almost necessary element of great punk and hardcore music. Perhaps this explains why I’ve taken an immediate liking to the self-titled record of Cereal Milk. Here is a band that literally is leaving it all out there: Cereal Milk no longer is a band and this posthumous record will be their final release. Some of its songs have been previously released, for example on the 2017 Amazing Singer Record comp by Emotional Response. Cereal Milk is an intense though melodic record, with a singer absolutely singing his heart out. It’s a dynamic record, with plenty of palm muting, cool guitar riffs, and well timed tempo and soft-loud variations. Shoutout to Californian label Phat ‘n’ Phunky for putting this out.

then, as they dropped the gates // and the bets were placed // your’s was against me // like some insider trade // you were privy to my fate // i’m the horse with the broken leg

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