It says a lot about how Brighton’s From Plan To Progress are wasted on a large portion of the UK Punk scene that, upon inspection, I couldn’t find a review for their previous full length in the reviews section of this very site.
That’s not to say that the band are wandering the vast scene wastelands of middle England peerless, as Fond of Life have picked up the band since last time around, and though perhaps a sign of the band’s following on the continent, it’s certainly an evolution in the right direction* in terms of label.
Regardless of how the UK scene currently embraces ‘Skate Punk’ (for want of a better term), From Plan To Progress have been consistantly interesting and lyrically excellent since exception, and ‘Ink Stains & Incidents’ is no different. A change in personal since the previous effort brings darker, technical riffs and thrash influnces, and it’s given the band a whole new dimension.
It’s a lazy comparison to line up From Plan to Progress next to early Rise Against or more recent Propagandhi but in all honesty, fans of either should have a field day, and there’s far worse things to mention in the same breath.
Songs like ‘Product of the Past’, ‘MMV” and closer ‘Curtain Call’ have everything a technical punk fan could want, the instrumentation throughout is impeccably well thought out. From early impressions it’s going to take about ten miracles to keep this out of my top ten for the year.
*sorry, couldn’t resist.