Review: Lagwagon – Hang

After a hiatus of nine-years, punk-rock veterans Lagwagon are back with new album ‘Hang’.

“I’m writing all the time,” says Cape, “but a lot of times it doesn’t feel appropriate for Lagwagon. It’s not who the band collectively is at the time, and the mold is constantly changing. Sometimes it takes a decade for all the stars to align!”

Lagwagon are a band that came to a lot of people’s attention for being on the soundtrack of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2. They show they won’t fade in to obscurity, with a Vans back-pack full of new tracks.

The opener ‘Burden Of Proof’ is an acoustic little number which could be mistaken for the power-charged opener for second track ‘Reign’. The riff basically sums up the past 25 years of punk-pop evoking Green Day, Blink 182 and even Rise Against with vocals you can liken to Alkaline Trio or Dropkick Murphys.

There are also many tracks you could be reminded of Foo Fighters or Biffy Clyro – especially track ‘The Cog in The Machine’. ‘Hang’ does not sound like an album from a band who have been absent for the best part of a decade. For a band associated with the bouncy and sunshiny pop-punk genre Lagwagon are a pretty sullen band. An album cover featuring a neck-ready noose and tracks like ‘Poison In the Well’ confirm.‘Obsolete Absolute’ isn’t exactly cheerful, name-checking everything that has been forgotten in an Internet-savvy society. Even so this is a great track, changing pace halfway through with sublime guitar work and vocal melodies.

Clocking in at six minutes and eleven seconds, this is a sure-fire high light of the album. 90s-baiting tune ‘Western Settlement‘ let’s drummer Dave Raun shine with hints of bands like NOFX.

As mentioned earlier, a lot of fans (in the UK at least) might have first heard of Lagwagon on a video game soundtrack or a skater compilation. In essence this album might be a hard-hitter for fans of the group and genre Lagwagon belong to.