THE UNSINKABLE - Machinery

6 songs
15:19 minutes
***** **
(self-released)

Bandpage

They may be a rather new band, but the band members are mostly veterans from the Dutch punk rock and hardcore scene, with one musician having been active in Facing Down back in the Nineties. And that’s what explains why The Unsinkable which were founded in 2016 rather sound like a melodic punk rock band straight from 1996.

Their first EP Machinery contains six short songs, all between one and a half and three and a half minutes long, meaning that the fun stops already after a quarter hour. For a debut release, this works rather well as a visiting card. With decades of experience under their belts, the quartet does know how to write catchy material. There’s plenty of melodies, well done dual guitar work, an able rhythm section to keep it all afloat, and melodic vocals that are pleasantly scratchy and thus give the songs a fierce attitude.

Bands like NOFX, No Use For A Name and New Found Glory are obvious influences, and if you have an affinity for the era of Nineties punk rock when these kinds of bands all of a sudden filled big concert venues, you might want to check out The Unsinkable. The songs on Machinery may still be a little rough around the edges, but the balance of shorter in-your-face tracks with the two slightly longer and more melancholic tracks Christopher and Jeremy, both strangely titled after male names, shows that The Unsinkable is definitely more than a one-trick-pony. I hope that these Dutch punk veterans will soon find the time to pamper us with a regular longplayer.