It took them 19 years, but the timing has been a perfect reminder for all aging elder emos still being choked by their ties and daydreaming of going to the barricades that Piebald’s always had your priorities figured out for you.

It’s really been nearly two decades since the beloved Bostonian emo-punk rockers called it a day one year after delivering their 2007 swan song in the indie rock superlative turn, Accidental Gentleman, and while the world has certainly changed for the worse during that period, their uncanny frontman and guitarist Travis Shettel alongside guitarist Aaron Stuart, bassist Andrew Bonner, and drummer Luke Garro have kept it grounded on matters of real importance since returning necessarily on the brink of societal collapse in 2016.

Community and friendship fuel their sixth full-length effort, Tales for the Rages, just as much as disappointment in the powers that be do, but if anyone is winning out here — beyond listeners — it’s the band’s ability to keep our positivity in check without overlooking a lot of work still needing to be done to fix messes caused by billionaires, the capitalist grind, and smarmy political agendas. “If rules can be destroyed by truth, then they should be / All power to the student, the worker, and those who aren’t free!,” exclaims Shettel over a signature Piebald punk-blistered power-pop rocker on “Used to Good Advantage”. That may as well the be the whole damn thing’s thesis statement if there were one.

Those cash-strapped sentiments and antidotes to apathy don’t stop rolling through on “More Month Than Money” and “No One Seems to Smile.” Add in a few jolts to aging gracefully on “This Thing Is Old”, de-cringing nostalgia on “Dance Till We Fall Apart” and “The Strangest Dream”, and wrestling through the frustrations of modern disconnect on the balladeering “Gentleman Callers”, and it’s safe to say that in their time away from the scene, Piebald have kept themselves very busy taking notes on the state of the human condition to apply when needed.

In spite all that which has corroded our timeline, they’ve miraculously managed to keep their sound unscathed and ageless, too — these 13 tracks are right up there with their turn-of-the-millennium classics in If It Weren’t For Venetian Blinds, It’d Be Curtains for Us All and We Are the Only Friends We Have. Their Rage remains righteous, and so does their ability to pile-on the bodies to a sing-a-long in the pit. Down, but not out, Piebald’s return resets your head in the game with some absolute rockers to go along with it.

Highlights: “This Thing Is Old”, “Used to Good Advantage”, “Gentleman Callers”

Piebald’s Tales for the Rages is available now on Iodine Recordings.

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