Photo by Eric Soucy

The Story So Far have been around forever at this stage carrying on the pop-punk torch in the more purest way possible without ever making it sound like they’re outgrowing what they’re writing about. Credit that to the fact that they’re growing up with their audience since arriving on the scene a decade and a half ago by embracing every complicated emotion in adulting that goes along with it, and maintaining a hunger at that to see it through the other end which has consistently made them a more intelligently aggressive example of pop-punk (as well as a natural link between vocalist Parker Cannon’s really great hardcore-fueled project, No Pressure.) A couple weeks ago, the Bay Area quartet released their first new album in six years and fifth studio effort overall, I Want To Disappear. It’s rock solid jam after jam — a perfect summer rush of an album to carry you through your own personal seasons of change that come hereafter. If you’re looking to soak in some of their extremely uptempo energy to couple with bleak, everyday existentialist grief, opener “All This Time” is your go-to supplement for that. “So just say you want out and we can / Stop all this pain now / How many seasons you’re not around / I spread your ashes onto the ground,” Cannon shouts along as the listen burns with riffs radiant. You’d think with all that heaviness on one’s heart, it would all be too much to carry on with, but the momentum Story So Far give you makes it an easy fete to lift.

The Story So Far’s I Want to Disappear is available now on Pure Noise Records.