Are We All Angels by Scowl
Scowl level up in incredible fashion on their second full-length <i>Are We All Angels</i>, a West Coast rock record packed with the type of hooks that most bands only dream of cooking up. The leap achieved by these Santa Cruz screamers is all the more impressive when taking into account the rawness of their breakout debut, <i>How Flowers Grow</i> from 2021—a speedy and pummelling hardcore record in which vocalist Kat Moss growled in a bile-spitting low register over songs that rarely made it past the two-minute mark. On <i>Are We All Angels</i>, Moss and the gang bolster their ferocious sound with an assist from producer Will Yip (Code Orange, Turnstile) and a new-found sense of tunefulness that recalls fellow Californians The Distillers’ chipped-tooth 2003 classic <i>Coral Fang</i>. But even at their most radio-ready moments—the chugging “Celebrity Skin”-recalling guitars of “Fantasy”; “Suffer the Fool (How High Are You?)”’s indelible, miles-long chorus—Scowl never lose an ounce of grit that gained them prominence in the always-crowded hardcore scene, making for a record that transcends mere genre-crossover gestures.
