Album Reviews

From Grand Rapids, MI comes Cosmonaut, a trio that consists of vocalist/guitarist Brian George, bassist Rodney Johnson and Josh Stacey on drums. Together they churned out a batch of tunes on their self-titled full-length that are holed up in the wasteland between punk and post-hardcore.

Opening track “Choke” and “Walk Away” come with a Pennywise vibe vocal-wise. Without sounding too much like Pennywise. “Tangled” on the other hand has this nice Helmet-like flavor. Without sounding too much like Helmet. And “Steal It” made me think of Therapy?. Without sounding too… well, you get what I want to say. Confusing, right? More importantly though, it sounds good. All of the tracks come with plenty of urgency, rough edges and a rawness that works wonders for them. And at the same time Cosmonaut didn’t forget that a solid hook never hurt anyone.

While working your way down the track-listing, some of the songs might start to blend together. It’s not a huge problem, but with a little bit more variety next time things can only improve even further.