Black Sheep – Motion Pictures LP (Bearded Punk Records)

It’s a shame when some excellent record passes unnoticed, and there’s no wondering why this is happening since tons of punk rock recordings are popping up every day. Sometimes some lousy records receive more exposure than other releases, and gems are losing a well-deserved spotlight. Therefore, I decided to dig deeper into Bearded Punk Records vinyl crates and stumbled upon this epic release. Motion Pictures by Black Sheep is one of those hidden gems that passed unnoticed in my book. This material represents their debut material released by Bearded Punk Records, alongside Guerilla Asso and I For Us Records back in 2015. Besides this release, the group released a couple more recordings such as Première Conclusion ‎CD, The Straight Line Will Take You Only To Death LP, and split release with Nina’School. I highly advise checking all their recordings. Still, I would like to focus on Motion Pictures today.

It’s nearly a wonder how this material is still available of vinyl considering the quality of Black Sheep. Motion Pictures carries eleven powerful melodic punk rock tunes, heavily inspired by the contemporary punk rock sound, but you may stumble upon some old school acrobatics characteristic for the nineties punk rock music as well. Judging by their sound, Black Sheep thoroughly explores melodic punk rock by levitating between skate punk and pop-punk music. Some tunes maybe resemble some contemporary melodic hardcore acrobatics, which is pretty fine with me. Their music carries a spectacular dosage of cheerfulness, mainly because of the song structures, arrangements, and enormous portions of singalongs. The group also pays a lot of attention to the details. Therefore music is enormously detailed, melodic, dynamic and gives you enough energy and motivation to get through the worst times. Motion Pictures delivers positive vibes from scratch to finish, without sounding repetitious and predictable, like the albums by some other bands you got the chance to listen to before.

The guitars keep these songs as melodic as possible through various dualities, mainly comprised of power chord progressions, fast-paced riffs, harmonies, octaves, catchy themes, and other guitar shreds and licks. The bass guitar lurks somewhere beneath and punches with warm-sounding basslines. Besides acting as a support to the guitar maneuvers, the bass guitar also serves as a bonding element between guitars and excellent drumming performance. The drummer continuously supplies the remaining portion of the group with highly dynamic rhythmic segments, marvelous accentuations, and other acrobatics. The orchestrations delivered by the entire band are going beyond comprehension. Black Sheep balances between aggressiveness and melodies with such ease. The group is fully aware of their capabilities. Therefore, each musician involved in Black Sheep explores all the possibilities by delivering the best performance that will appropriately suit the harmonious aesthetics of this album.

Motion Pictures comes on black vinyl and compact disc, accompanied by meaningful cover artwork. The vinyl is still available in the Bearded Punk Records web store, so don’t wait up until this outstanding recording goes completely sold out. Highly recommended for those who’re looking out for punk rock music that balances between aggressiveness and melody.