REVIEW: Scowl's "Psychic Dance Routine" via Flatspot

Scowl is the subject of a bit of discourse in the past week due to a recent brand deal with Taco Bell. Taco Bell posted a roughly seven-and-a-half-minute performance of the band and also featured them on their apps home page leaving some fans of the genre with some harsh things to say about the concept of artists in hardcore making a paycheck off of corporations. While I’m not here, necessarily, to stick up for one side or the other I will tell you that this actually made me finally get around to this release. This has been on my radar since it dropped back in April, and I know it’s a short one, but that time of year was especially packed with new drops, and I didn’t quite get around to it until the band was sort of in the headlines once again.

Right off the bat the band demonstrates their ability to do so much with so little time on first track “Shot Down.” Hardcore verses and a beat switch into a groovy, grungey nineties rock inspired chorus seamlessly all rolled into two minutes. From there we get the title track, the longest song on the record and honestly the one that sticks with me the most. The riff and melody of this one have been in my head for days and I really enjoy that they went all in on the rock sound for this one. I think the only thing I don’t like on the entire record is the hook to “Wired.” Doing this short sort of rant about someone being on their phone instead of engaging with you is a sentiment I can absolutely feel but the whole thing comes off unnatural and like it doesn’t quite flow with the rest of the song. But at one hook being the only problem I can find, how can I actually even complain?


Psychic Dance Routine is filled with great songs, memorable moments and a celebration of so many genres of music that it’s hard not to walk away totally in love with what you hear. As I said I know it’s cool to hate on bands getting opportunities like brand deals but I really can’t see why you wouldn’t want your favorites to succeed. I also see the excuse of opinions not being valid from people who got into the genre over the past couple of years or on Tik Tok and again, I can’t imagine why you care about how or when someone heard the genre of music you like. You should want your favorites, or at least representatives in the same space as your favorites, to do well. I want bands to do well, it’s why I even run this blog. But I don’t know, I’m a twenty-nine year old woman, I’ve listened to this genre my whole life and I’m happy to see a female fronted hardcore band, or any hardcore band really, get their dues after working as hard as Scowl have.


But you know, you were happy when Turnstile and Knocked Loose did it! Wonder why that is!


Our rating - 9/10

  1. Shot Down
  2. Psychic Dance Routine
  3. Wired
  4. Opening Night
  5. Sold Out

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