For a while now Graduating Life have been becoming a popular name in the punk rock scene and today they released their new LP Grad Life, a raw and honest LP that stands out amongst the rest of the punk rock crowd. It’s the type of album that I feel will relate to a whole new generation of punk rock fans in the same way so many of us in our youth would’ve connected with My Chemical Romance’s album The Black Parade.
There’s Only One Way is the perfect opener for the album with it giving us a preview of everything we’re about to hear. With tender acoustic guitars, emotional piano melodies, heavy rock guitars, powerful drum beats and extremely rough vocals.
The album has so many stadium anthems that will certainly make their live shows a spectacle to behold. The tracks are filled with so much energy that they will instantly get the crowd jumping with the erratic Victory Song with it’s sweet trumpet section, Finale that fuses ludicrous amounts of emotion with top tier guitar shredding and Watch You Die!!! with a husky vocal that gives this track life.
However this album truly shines when you get the emotional charged tracks like It’s Second Year, Don’t Have Kids and Sticky Man. Each one of those tracks tackle a different issue that resonates with the listener through an intense atmosphere that amplifies the emotion, impassioned vocals that makes you believe everything he sings and poignant lyrics that will leave you reeling.
Graduating Life has achieved an album that will enthral people from start to finish. A striking LP that will place them in the hearts of many a fan in the punk rock community and an album that will leave a mark on all listeners for a long time to come.