Nonstarter – Seasoned Stuntman EP (Dang!Records)

Today, we are talking about some quality punk rock music from Texas. Located in Dallas, Nonstarter is a band whose biography is yet to be written, but the band is comprised of skillful musicians who are into skatepunk music for too long. Unlike their previous bands, Nonstarter is much more nuanced version of their previous punk-rock endeavors, as the band stated in their biography. The band is comprised of same old faces, but with a lot more bright ideas than ever before. Seasoned Stuntman talks about failures, but not about being a failure. Instead of that, Nonstarter is singing about taking risks in life, falling down, being wise to prevail obstacles in life and possessing the strength to move on. Seasoned Stuntman sounds like a collection of five compositions about ups and downs in life, and the band sounds like a charm on all the presented compositions. Somehow, these guys know how to unify great heavy metal scales, punk rock riffs, and energetic rhythms into magnificent melancholic compositions full of emotive moments. Dynamics are almost insane, drumming sections are nailing it from very beginnings of this brilliant EP till the very end and guitars are greatly following all the transitions like this material has been played by an individual. Basslines are almost glued to the drums, the symbiosis between a bass player and a drummer is nearly divine, so you’ll be surprised how these guys operate throughout the whole recording. Presence of metal music is dominant on all the compositions, the band is not overexploiting their abilities to transform some metal sections into the pleasant sound of melodic skate punk. They intentionally left these metal sequences hearable, but those really go great with the fundamentals of melodic punk rock music. Vocals are also great, they truly describe all the lyrics presented on this recording. They’re ranging from classic clean sections to the more aggressive moments where the presence of the distortion in the vocal cords is more than noticeable. Seasoned Stuntman is a great EP release which will suit to all the fans of a slightly modern metallic blend of skate punk music, but it’s also recommended to all the curious bees who are exploring this particular music genre.