Album Review

Atlas Losing Grip - State of UnrestAtlas Losing Grip - State of Unrest

State of Unrest is thirteen songs of pure unadulterated punk-rock, plain and simple. Atlas Losing Grip are the band behind this and are firmly carrying the torch for this classic punk sound.

Comparisons with Rise Against are inevitable with them being the leaders of this diminishing scene and the vocal here owes a lot to Tim McGraw, Atlas Losing Grip though have a much more infantile approach to punk than do the old hands. This is an album of unifying shout-along songs that would sound great live, “my hearts a time-bomb, set on self-destruct.”

The Swedish band formed in 2005 and set out to play straight up ‘skate-punk’, six years later with a new line-up and new material Atlas Losing Grip have become more than they could have imagined. ‘Logic’ opens the album with the political, religious, and even philosophical themes that will follow throughout and yet they aren’t forcing their opinions on you: “It does not matter if God created man, or if man himself created God. “God is dead”, as Nietzsche once said.” Punk doesn’t have to be political and these boys know how to open themselves up to a wider audience mixing their beliefs with some plain-old heart on your sleeve emotion and if first single ‘Unrest’ is anything to go by then Atlas Losing Grip produce raw content no matter the subject.

An album like this, with so many sing-along moments, could easily be lumped in with pop-punk; that’s just lazy reviewing, if anything this is closer to melodic hard-core and the reason for this confusion is the vocal performance of Rodrigo Alfaro. His voice is strange and yet very normal for punk, which is a stupid thing to say, but it’s true. He sounds tired and worn, but yet so young and alive. His vocals, backed-up by choppy guitars and incredible drumming, give these songs vigour. Alfaro spits his words out like they burn his tongue before nursing them to a smooth half falsetto finish.

Atlas Losing Grip loves the scene they come from and it’s clear in numerous songs on the album with lyrics like: “this is our scene and our say. We gotta make a stand for it cause no one else will give a shit” or the chant of: “we gotta rise on up from the underground” on ‘Hook, Line and Sinker’ and there is no doubt that the scene will welcome them eagerly. Who knows they might even become leaders, they have the talent enough.

All the components of this album come together to create a sharp, affecting, anthemic record that will easily soundtrack many of the lives it reaches. It goes just as quickly as it came, but fragments linger festering in the depths of your brain as they gather meaning.

4.5/5

Review by Lauren Mullineaux

 Band Members

Rodrigo Alfaro
Stefan Bratt
Gustav Burn
Max Huddén
Julian Guedj
 Track Listing
1. Logic
2. Bitter blood
3. All in a days work
4. Unrest
5. Different hearts, different minds
6. Numb
7. Contemplation
8. Feed the fire
9. Closer to the end
10. Hook, line and sinker
11. Black hole
12. Voracious appetite
13. Heartsease

 Band Related Links
Atlas Losing Grip Myspace
 Review Score Code
- Top Cheese
- Brilliant
- Pretty damn good
- Ok I guess
- What Was That?