CREDIT: MSMEDIAFRENZY
Don't judge the album by its name - All Balls... No Cock is a catchy punk album you don't come across often.

Judging a band by its album cover can sometimes be helpful in determining what the music may be like. I know you’re not really supposed to do that, but if it looks like it was created on Microsoft Paint and has any visual resemblance to a dollar-bin tribute band CD, I find a lot of the time my assumptions can be right.

Looking at Captain Bringdown and the Buzzkillers’ cover for the band’s 2013 album All Balls... No Cock, you may want to think that the band is probably some sort of joke production. An album crudely recorded for the sake of a few laughs only to end up banished to one of those aforementioned dollar- bins.

That assumption couldn’t be any further from the truth, because this album is a hard hitting and absurdly catchy punk album that you don’t come across often, especially in London. There’s not much to joke about other than the band members’ costumes and artwork that features a morph suit/tighty-whitey clad superhero alongside three goofy police officers.

Captain Bringdown recently released a great seven-inch called Strike Again! earlier this year and while that is also a great release, this album is pretty cohesive with lots of good tracks, and it’s pretty damn fun to listen to.

It’s a front-to-back worthy album with tight guitar riffs and a scratchy punk voice that belts out melodies without sacrificing pitch. Seriously, how do you get that voice without picking up chain smoking?

It’s poppy without being pop punk, a relief for some and possibly a turn off for others who love the cleanest production and vocal delivery.

I would find it hard to not enjoy this album, though if you grew up listening to bands like Green Day, Sum 41 or Blink-182 because it certainly will appeal to you if that is the case. This album throws back to that sound, specifically the west coast variants like Blink. The guitar tones are buzzy with lots of little lead parts to fill in between each stanza. It’s fast-paced even though each song is considered long for the punk genre.

This is certainly the album where this band found its sound. Most debuts seem to come out that way because it’s a culmination of work that has usually been sitting around for years. Other albums that follow are usually done in some sort of break period, which I think attributes to the notion that every band’s debut is usually its best.

Captain Bringdown certainly doesn’t seem to be getting any slower though or lacking in vitality as the band still keeps it real and still put out good tunes.

The band plays a lot of shows too, and the band members are super nice guys on top of being great on stage, so they’re worth seeing perform live.

Listen to the album or buy it at the band’s bandcamp page, captainbringdownandthebuzzkillers.bandcamp.com.