Photo Credit: Anthony Purcella
Since their inception in 2015, Southern California hardcore punk band Movements have redefined the meaning of an emotional rollercoaster. Their debut album Feel Something tackled themes of mental health and recovery, while their 2020 sophomore full-length No Good Left To Give didn’t let up on the dark subject matter either, as grief, sorrow and anguish completed the emotional tapestry Movements portray to heart wrenching effect. Three years later and their third full-length RUCKUS! aims to disrupt the trajectory of the turmoil Movements’ headspace has been in thus far, bursting with new found self-confidence, living life on the edge and savouring every single drop of the sentimental moments it has to offer.
Opener You’re One Of Us Now lands with an air of difference. Where Movements have cut their teeth in the snarling hardcore edges of the scene, You’re One Of Us Now is a diversion for a band craving something sonically different. Rousing sounds from a crowd, combined with melodic and sometimes heavy guitars come across as theatrical and dramatic, without straying too far from their roots.
Next up comes the string of singles from RUCKUS!. Double-sided songs Killing Time and Lead Pipe respectively see frontman Patrick Miranda gush about being so sickeningly in love, to completely hating someone’s guts with one of the most infectious basslines Movements have ever written. Whereas Heaven Sent and Tightrope tug on the heartstrings, one being a pure declaration of love and the other suffering from self-doubt from the perspective of a lover. Completing the singles collection comes I Hope You Choke! and Fail You, perhaps two of the most Movements sounding songs on RUCKUS!, both songs laced with malice at oneself or someone else. The gang vocals on the chorus to I Hope You Choke! make you feel like you are the target of Movements hatred.
Before the record comes to a close with cruising ballad Coeur D’Alene, Dance With Death is the pinnacle of the emotional rollercoaster that is RUCKUS!. A song written about a drive Patrick Miranda went on with friends, a lighthearted joke of tempting fate with death, imagining if life just ceased to exist if they all crashed right in that moment transpired – a lesson in embracing life because it could all end in the tragic blink of an eye.
On RUCKUS!, Movements have made a disturbance. A chaotic, all over the place album lashing out with anger but basking in love. Movements, as always, are bringing you along for yet another emotionally charged ride.
10/10
Standout Tracks: Killing Time, Lead Pipe, Fail You, I Hope You Choke!, Dance With Death
For Fans Of: Hot Mulligan, Turnstile, Turnover
Written By: Katie Conway-Flood
