Garnering a lot of buzz and attention with their debut album, Drain have been building a sterling reputation and breathing new life into the NorCal alternative scene. Choosing to build bridges instead of burning them, Living Proof continues the bands exploration into the deep history of the Californian alternative scene. Pulling as much inspiration from old school punk and hardcore bands like Descendants, Black Flag and Circle Jerks, more modern hardcore outfits such as Terror or Trash Talk, crossover legends like Suicidal Tendencies and even nods to the Bay Area Thrash scene. Drain meld all these elements and more together into their own take on the concept of CA focussed crossover.
Opting to kick the door in from the start with album opener ‘Run Your Luck’, Sammy Ciaramitaro’s snarling and explosive delivery of “Run your fucking luck” echoing as the track opens into Drain ferocious crossover chops, seamlessly moving between thrash-tinged riffs and Hardcore breakdown rhythms. The onslaught is near non-stop from front to back. Singles ‘Evil Finds Light’, ‘FTS (KYS)’ and teaser single from 2021 ‘Watch You Burn’ are particular highlights, but each track has more than enough merit to stand on their own and Living Proof is absolutely packed with Hardcore barn-burners. ‘Devil’s Itch’ and ‘Imposter’ are both sure to conjure some eager mosh-pit fodder for their live shows, with the latter being particularly thrash focussed, the tom led intro breaking into the main thrash riff is sure to set crowds alight.
“Choosing to build bridges instead of burning them, Living Proof continues the bands exploration into the deep history of the Californian alternative scene.”
That’s not to say that the album doesn’t have variance from the aggressive and pummelling nature of the band, far from it, two excellent curveballs are thrown into the mix with both ‘Intermission’ and Descendants cover ‘Good Good Things’. The former opens with a piano melody and breaks into a trap beat and bass drops, featuring CA rapper Shakewell as the only real vocalist on the track (apart from a playful moment of interplay between the rapper and the band), spitting bars with nods to the track names and lyrical themes of the album before breaking into frenetic paced hardcore rhythms. It might seem strange at first but Shakewell has deep roots in the CA scene, he was formerly the bassist of CA metal outfit Betrayal. With the latter, ‘Good Good Things’, coming right near the end of the album, the melodic hardcore classic is as poppy and infectious as it was nearly forty years ago. Drain pay fitting tribute to the Descendants, keeping the saccharine and emotive feel of the song largely the same as the original just with more modern and refined production sensibilities in line with the bands sound and it fits in seamlessly, if somewhat unexpected.
Production wise this is a significant step up from their debut, there is a lot more space for the performances to breathe and they’re captured with a significantly higher fidelity and finesse. Tim Flegal’s methodical drumming and the additional percussion sound absolutely massive and distinct, complimented by Mike Durrett’s bass work, which in particular has a lot more presence within the bands sound. Fitting between and accenting the low-end chugs of the guitar, with the added element of the more traditional “slinky” mid-high punk rock bass tone, exemplified on ‘Good Good Things’ and in the opening of ‘Devil’s Itch’. The bulk of Cody Chavez’s guitar is often multi-tracked to build thick, distorted textures and feature a lot of interesting use of the stereo space all across the album, using choice panning to make the guitar work more engaging. On top of that, the lead guitar tones for the pinch harmonics, dive-bombs, hooks and solos are absolutely saturated in the 80’s Bay Area thrash feel, particularly noticeable in Cody’s killer solo on ‘Weight Of The World’, as if they could have been ripped straight out of a classic Slayer, Exodus or Testament album. Ciaramitaro’s barking vocals sound as confrontational as ever, picking up on the subtleties and nuances in his vocal tone as well as the softer nature of his clean sung performance in ‘Good Good Things’.
“The melodic hardcore classic is as poppy and infectious as it was nearly forty years ago. DRAIN pay fitting tribute to the Descendants.”
Ciaramitaro has always been upfront about his approach to Drain’s lyricism, drawing from personal experiences, his words often focus on authenticity and relatability. Moments of introspective lyricism, being reflective of personal growth with ‘FTS (KYS)’, attempting not to succumb to pressures with ‘Weight Of The World’ or mental health struggles as seen with ‘Evil Finds Light’. Juxtaposed with more overt, angry and rebellious lyrics; ‘Imposter’ calling out those who front a fake image of themselves, the sheer unyielding hatred felt in ‘Watch You Burn’ or the defiant middle finger of title track ‘Living Proof’ to the band’s detractors. It’s why Descendants cover ‘Good Good Things’ fits so well within the track list, despite being decidedly poppier than the rest of their offerings, it has that same approachable authenticity that Drain pride themselves on.
Drain have taken everything that worked from their debut and refined it, blending all of their branching influences in a more fluid and cohesive manor to create what truly feels like a celebration of a scene’s history and planting a flag for its future. As catchy as it is relentless, Living Proof is absolutely stuffed with quality hooks, pummelling aggression, approachable lyrical themes and catchy songwriting in its twenty-five minute run time. Its not hard to see why Hardcore is having such a strong resurgence, when bands keep cranking out banger album after banger album, especially when they sound this good.