The Offspring – Days Go By

Days Go By is a welcome return from The Offspring.  Guided brutally by frontman Dexter Holland’s narration, the album is big on anthems and fist-pumping rock ‘n’ roll thrills. Guitars clash boisterously throughout — sometimes scathing and savage, and other times sparse and melancholic. However, the brief moments of light are smashed apart by angsty, crashing drums.

The album opener, The Future Is Now, sees gutsy vocals pack a visceral punch, before the sonically arresting melody takes hold. The band bury into themselves and deep into their psyches. The result is a dizzying, discordant and heavily rhythmic track that shows the bands unerring knack for creating holistic records.

The chorus of Hurting As One will embed itself into your memory whether you like it or not. Although the intricate instrumentation is scintillating, there seems to be a huge unwillingness to climax and reluctance to let a shameless sing along take over. Both brutal and balletic, Hurting As One  is a  knuckle-whitening transgressive piece of work.

The Offspring have simply polished down some of the spikier edges of earlier albums, without quite hitting the heights of their best songs.

Days Go By is a slab of classic angst-ridden rock. Though a little one-paced, the album  boasts full bodied tracks of a swelling scale. Much of it may be predictable, but from beginning to end, Days Go By bursts with ideas that are familiar enough to hit home, but new enough to stay there.

Standout track: The Future is Now

Naomi Couper

Days Go By is released on 26^th June 2012.

Watch the video for Days Go By here: