ALBUM REVIEW: STATE CHAMPS - Kings of the New Age

Formed in Albany, New York over a decade ago STATE CHAMPS offer everything a Pop Punk lover could want.

Kings of the New Age is the 4th full length album from the band and has been released on Pure Noise like all its predecessors.

The band have achieved moderate success in the US entering the Hot 100 with two previous albums as well as having top 5 successes on the Rock, Indie and Alt charts. They have also broken the UK top 100 albums on two occasions.

Singles “Just Sound” and “Outta My Head” were released in August and September 2021 and a further single “Everybody But You” came out on February 23th the same day the band announced the new album would be coming out in May.

Overall I really enjoyed “Kings of the New Age”, as I've said in many reviews I'm a huge Pop Punk fan however sometimes I feel bands like The Wonder Years, +44 and Real Friends have set the bar so high I can be quite hard to please. However, from the moment this album kicked in I was hooked. It's everything you could want from a pop punk record: fast tempos, loud distorted guitars, power chords and pop inspired melodies.

My only real criticism is that the intro/riff of Where You Were is clearly nicked directly from Sway by Bearing! Go listen to them back to back you’ll see what I mean!!

My particularly favourites are “Everybody But You” a song about having a party and inviting everyone but your ex to make a point that you don't give a fuck. The song is riff heavy with a catchy chorus and plenty of parts where you know the mosh pit is gonna erupt!

I also really like “Half Empty”, which features Chrissy Costanza of Against the Current whose vocals are absolutely stunning and compliment singer Derek's perfectly. The song makes me smile in context of the album as it talks about how the girl is the "out half" of him, however the rest of the album hammers home what a waste of time she is!

This is my first encounter with STATE CHAMPS and it won't be my last. The band are clearly very influenced by veteran pop punkers such as New Found Glory, Blink 182 and Fall Out Boy however they managed to inject something fresh and original to their sound which makes them interesting. Kings of the New Age is well worth a listen!

Kings of the New Age is OUT NOW on Pure Noise