Blue Youth

Dead Forever // Grind Central Records

Regina’s Blue Youth return with their first full length record called Dead Forever. More unsettling and noisy than their debut EP, Dead Forever could be called post-hardcore or noise punk but regardless of how it’s classified, one thing is for certain… It’s damn good! Everything is a little darker from the instrumentation to the lyrics. The album begins with the frenetic track “Black Lung” which sounds most like their first EP and serves as a good bridge between the two releases making it possible to cohesively listen to the two back to back. The track “Delusional/Unapologetic” opens with an urgent baseline and eerie noises before exploding into an angry 90 seconds of powerful punk. The track is divided into two parts and as soon as part two begins, you realize that Blue Youth have found their sound as a band. It starts quiet with repeated spoken word lines and extra layers of lyrics and creepy noise are gradually added to the mix as the song builds into a cacophony of sound. The album continues to surprise and impress with the experimental interlude track “Water Well” and the heart-breaking piano intro of “(The Worst Of It Is) You.” Using multiple tools and not allowing themselves limitations is why this album is so special. The rare moments when words are able to be deciphered, lyrics like “the worst of it is through, because the worst of it is you” are soaked in anguish. Dead Forever is a beast of an album, one that will force ears around this country to pay attention to the punk scene in the Prairies.