This is 20 minutes – and eight songs – of pure unadulterated Danish skate punk. Yeah, Danish. The word about Punktastic is obviously spreading! Heading South are from Denmark and are like a throwback to the good old So-Cal days of mid 90s EpiFat skate punk when Ryan Greene produced everything, drums were hit hard and riffs bounced off the walls. So while Heading South has seemingly been stuck in a timewarp, it’s given people like me a chance to go back to their youth and remember why they got into punk rock to begin with.
‘Last Car Outta Richville’ is heavily influenced by bands like Good Riddance, Strung Out, NOFX and Pennywise – all those bands’ mid-1990s material anyway. There are plenty of melodies, but boy do some of these songs fucking shred. Opener ‘Stop Complaining’ has drums to make you want to dance. Infact the drums throughout are nothing short of fantastic. The guitars drive and the vocals are rough and ready – it’s pretty much a superb way to start any record of this type.
‘Family Matters’ follows up next and is hard hitting yet just as melodic, while ‘Broken Promise’ and ‘That Day’ have more of the same. If anything the eight songs on offer here do sound a bit samey, but with this record being here and gone in 20 minutes, it’s not that noticeable unless you play this EP over and over again as I have been doing. Fans of the Fat Wreck sound from 7 or 8 years ago will love this record, it’s a real blast from the past.
www.headingsouth.dk
Paul