REVIEW: Such Gold – ‘The New Sidewalk’

Artist: Such Gold
Album: The New Sidewalk
Label: Razor & Tie Records
Genre: Punk, Melodic Hardcore

Whenever a band is releasing a new album, I always observe how their music has evolved in a lot of aspects. This can include the band’s direction in sound, what the members have done to progress in their respective playing abilities, how personal their lyrics are, who is producing the album, etc.

Being an early listener of Rochester, NY’s melodic hardcore band Such Gold, I have seen the overall aroma of the band grow with each release in terms of lyrics, production, and how the writing process of the actual music has made this band grow into one of the most revered acts within the hardcore scene. When Such Gold released Misadventures in 2012, it was the debut record that adapted their furious pop-punk riffs and bouncy choruses. Fast forward two years later and we have The New Sidewalk, which shows the band emitting even more passion within their music and lyrics and proves that the members have invested time into further perfecting their instrumental prowess.

The album starts off with the eerie but groovy track, “Engulfed In Flames,” which already illustrates the maturity of the band followed by the heavily Into It. Over It.-esque “Faced.” This is followed by the hard-hitting “Axed Away” and pop-leaning, yet heavy, “Food Court Blues,” which again shows that the band is striving harder for those odd time signatures. Then comes “No Cab Fare,” a personal favorite of mine off the album, which begins with an echo-filled intro followed by weird chord structures in the verse. With this, versatility shines throughout the track to the band’s utmost best effort they have written to date. Other heavy hitters include the punk-influenced “Nauseating,” the 113-second “Don’t Park Next To Me,” and “Morrison,” with a rather impressive guitar solo during its midsection. The band slows things down a little with “I Know What I Saw” and “When It Gives,” emphasizing more of singer/guitarist Ben Kotin’s cleaner vocal delivery, yet raspy tones are still found. Closing the album is the incredible title track in “The New Sidewalk,” where all musical assets preceding it are paraphrased throughout the song, giving the listener a sigh of relief in the less than 40-minute album cycle.

With this release being Such Gold’s second full-length album, it’s far from a sophomore slump for the quartet. With the guidance of revered punk producer Bill Stevenson (Descendents), the album was surely brought to life with the intention of making the band shine in order to make each listen of the album more valuable. The New Sidewalk should be embraced for its undying effort in achieving new measures in the melodic hardcore world.

SCORE: 9/10
Review written by Ryan Kappy (follow him on Twitter)

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