School Drugs are a band that you could possibly say were “born too late”, their sound is of early 80’s hardcore, or is that early 90’s grunge core, or are we just not ready for such a hybrid of sound, where likening them to bands such as Minor Threat, Blag Flag or Bad Brains makes it all a bit comfortable. Personally I’d like to say this album demonstrates that School Drugs have moved on, this band has grafted their own skin into their music, driven the demons not out, but in to every corner of a sound that’s not just visceral, but also allows for conscious thought too.

So lets all imagine that this is the band’s first album, that what came before was just a precursor to what is now the band’s fully formed persona, that Funeral Arrangements is not only the title but also a wake for the old School Drugs and you’re on the right track. The band decided to release this album in what you might call sound bites over 4 instalments, and now you get the whole thing in its entirety, which seems a little bit of an oddment. However, once you hear what’s inside, and just how much darker and unrelenting it is compared to what came before, I suppose they gave fans a softer landing.

The instant you set off into the fire pit of this album your confronted with a change in atmosphere to previous incarnations, blended with the same hardcore vocal you now have strings and synths to deal with, but boy does this add so many layers, it gives the songs life beyond the initial tearing your ears to shreds. Having said all this, does this album give you anything more than previous releases? Well, the vocal still has that angst that could strip paint at 50 feet, and having gotten past track one ‘Dead Vine’ without actually dying, and ‘Can’t Slow Down’ for that matter, you can almost relax a little when what could possibly be one of the songs of the album. ‘No Taste’ hits your head space. This track just goes at full throttle without any messing around after a bass line to die for drops in the opening, this just fucking rocks.

Another song that brings home a sense of moving on has to be the riff laden ‘Epicedium’ an instrumental dirge that you do wonder might have been best placed at the end, until you hit the five following songs. It then occurs to you that this might be the when the resurrection occurs with songs that soar into a world that’s darker but musically brighter. ‘Lights Go Out’ and ‘Feel Like Shit’ stand out here, this half of the album is when you start to wonder if this is the direction the band is going, and if you’re in even deeper than you were when the album started. The title track is left until then end and I’m sure this was exactly how it was intended to be. This is an almost Damnedesque epic moment, this alone makes you want to know what lies ahead for this band, I’d buy this album just for this one song! All in all this album has two halves and they are like night and day, with the dark side grabbing my full attention.

Funeral Arrangements is out now via Indecision Records and you can score School Drugs on Facebook.

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