Our Time Down Here

In “Four and Ghost,” one of the two demos added onto the reissue of this EP, there are these lines: “This is just another song / about how we hate how things have gone / I know it’s cliché but I miss the way I felt when we belonged.”And those lines seem to say it all.

For fans of Kid Dynamite, A Wilhelm Scream and Strike Anywhere, there is now the UK’s Our Time Down Here. On their self-titled debut EP, they don’t seem to be trying to expand the genre of “melodic hardcore,” but that’s not something you’d expect to hear on a band’s first record. They sound like they’re just having a whole mess of fun hammering away at their instruments. And that’s what counts.

There are obligatory short blasts of rage, like the 30-second “Clear to Go!” and “Ritenuto,” and more controlled songs like “Headlines” and “A Road Less Travelled.” In the former, vocalist Will Gould shouts along, “Let’s count all the days, count what we spent / Count all the lives we lost to this tyrant / Again from the top, what you think matters the most makes me sick.” Just by reading those lyrics, you should be able to tell where Our Time Down Here are coming from.

This EP does its job by introducing a young band and providing a short glimpse into what punk bands are still capable of. For anyone questioning punk’s validity, Our Time Down Here are your answer.