For the more eagle eyed among you, you’ll have noticed the shift in tone of bands that Rise Records have been putting out over the past few years or so. Once the benchmark for every aspiring metalcore act, now the label’s interest seems to have eased on to the Warped Tour hopefuls a touch and leant closer to the classics and the legends. Over the past few years the likes of The Bouncing Souls, Face To Face, Only Crime and 7 Seconds have chosen to put their albums out under the label, and that list gets even longer with the addition of T.S.O.L. and their first album in eight long years.

A lot of ‘The Trigger Effect’’s appeal is in the details. If it’s not the off key jangling piano tinkles in the background of ‘Strange World’, it’s the flickers of guitar-based sunshine that holds ‘Wild Life’ together. These little tidbits of character and originality are what have always set T.S.O.L. from the rest of the punk rock pack.

Not afraid to try out different things to improve on their already stirring offerings, it’s a trait which helps bring them into the modern day without sounding stale and dated, like so many older bands end up doing. That’s not to say that ‘Satellites’ isn’t brimming with slam dance encouraging bounce, or the folk tinged poignancy of ‘Nothing Ever Lasts’ and sleek attitude of ‘You’re Still The Same’ don’t pack the sort of punch that rolls the years back.

Though not an instant classic, ‘The Trigger Effect’ is every bit as nostalgic as it is enjoyable. With a thick coating of rock and roll keeping its punk rock, rockabilly and at times gothic influences together, this is a T.S.O.L. album that will please as many long time followers as it does earn them new recruits.

3/5

‘The Trigger Effect’ by T.S.O.L. is released on 27th January on Rise Records.

T.S.O.L. links: Facebook

Words by Jack Rogers (@JackMRog)