DRAIN is your friend and don’t you dare take that for granted. Three albums into their career since breaking out during pandemic times with their 2020 debut, California Cursed, followed by their post-lockdown heatseeker, Living Proof, the Santa Cruz hardcore trio are still young, virile, and fully amped, ready to turn the pit into a party where all of the rage is more than welcome and darkness is to be destroyed.

On their end, life realities are hitting harder on the health side of things these days, with drummer and founding member Tom Flegal recently revealing his battle with cancer. Because they were there for you during the darkest days — and heaven knows we’re still not out of them — showing up for them with their latest album should be a no-brainer, even if the initial buzz may be starting to simmer outside of scene circles (let this be your reminder that major publications only care so much about your band as you can deliver eyeballs to their website…)

What has not is their relentless desire to smash hardcore skate punk and thrash through barriers, and have the sound coming out of the other end of the crater left behind sounding golden. If you’re thinking it’s more of the same, then you’re not listening close enough. While DRAIN’s grooves lift off the ground easier on the affirming anthems “STEALING HAPPEINESS FROM TOMORROW” and “NIGHTS LIKE THESE” or the vitriol-fueled callouts “LOUDEST IN THE ROOM” and “DARKEST DAYS”, they weight they lob onto their backs has only gotten heavier to match the subject matter.

How are they able to Atlas it all? Whether you call it maturation, another growth spurt, or a refinement in form after putting in plenty of reps on the road, vocalist Sammy Ciaramitaro, guitarist Cody Chavez, and drummer Tim Flegal are locked in here fully together, etching shredded screams into very necessary high-def piercing levels in most instances, but also embracing the frontman’s own clean vocals to polished punk-pop metal effect on “WHO’S HAVING FUN?” With the help of producer Jon Markson, the riffs and solos are crisp when cutting through the bullshit, and the chugging breakdowns pulverize the rocks below. It’s another electric performance in modern hardcore thrash that happens when all of the right elements between its people parts come to together and have each others backs. Maybe the answer to the first sentence in this paragraph just got answered right there…

Highlights: “STEALING HAPPINESS FROM TOMORROW”, “WHO’S HAVING FUN?”, “DARKEST DAYS”

DRAIN’s …IS YOUR FRIEND is available now on Epitaph Records.

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