It’s genuinely exciting to come across a band that you feel are doing their best to break the mould and that’s exactly the feeling I get when listening to this week’s Introducing band, Stillbust. The last you might have heard of this lot was when they were going through some ska-core phase, but now, a few years later, they’re a fully-fledged hardcore punk quartet who are stamping their authority everywhere they go.
They describe themselves as ‘a punked up Blakfish, fuelled by Cider’ and it’s easy to see the comparison. The musicianship is surprisingly similar to the much missed Blakfish, but the vocals are on a completely different level. They mix the intensity of Touche Amore with the franticness of Refused to produce a really memorable vocal that most, if not all bands in the genre would be proud of. Below is a stream of their song ‘Try Not to Take a Picture’ which shows off the comparison. It’s also a personal favourite of the band, who describe it as “heavy, a little bit weird, and a story about a future in which people stop writing things down.”
Stillbust are a hard-working band. They’ve already completed three tours of mainland Europe – all of which were self-booked and done with a great DIY attitude. They’ve also managed a UK stint with the likes of Thiskidisfireworks and have an extensive UK and Euro tour planned for Spring 2013.
The above – coupled with the quality of their music output, obviously – meant that when they sent an EP to Lockjaw Records, it gained some serious instant approval. So much so that they were offered the opportunity of working with the company for their future album release. It’s a break that Stillbust sorely deserved, and one that means their forthcoming album release will get the support it needs.
Going into the end of 2012, the say their is to knuckle down with writing the album – “It’ll be our debut album and we’re working as hard as we possibly can to make it our best effort yet.” They’re also going to be booking their UK and Euro tour. They’ve put the feelers out to mainland European promoters and the response has been positive with interest as far as Ukraine and Romania. This is a band that want everybody to hear their music and will go to any length to make sure that happens. We hope they do because it’s music that needs to be heard.