Bad Idea – Sonic Hellride LP

We have some more excellent music for your listening pleasure. This time, I am diving deep into Sonic Hellride, a new full-length release by Bad Idea, a Minnesota-based in-your-face punk rock quartet. After a detailed search on the web, I realized Sonic Hellride is their second record, and the group released a self-titled debut in 2017. They also published an extended play release called This Is…Bad Idea, and a standalone single Psychomania. As you can see, Bad Idea kept their activities as prolific as possible during all these years, and Sonic Hellride comes as a natural progression of a band that sounded great right from the start. Still, this particular album showcases some innovations in songwriting, composing, arranging, and producing.

Sonic Hellride carries eleven excellent punk rock compositions, and this particular material will immediately throw you back in times when this music genre sounded great. It’s not like there are no great new punk rock bands nowadays, but Bad Idea embraces those aesthetics we all fell in love with in the first place. As soon as you put a needle on this fine piece of plastic, you’ll notice how these folks combine healthy dosages of American eighties hardcore punk with UK82, plus they left some space on their tunes for some good old American rock ‘n’ roll and garage rock sound. They unquestionably know how to merge all the vital elements of American hardcore and British streetpunk, but they also implemented some signature moves that make Sonic Hellrise even more pleasant, listenable, and entertaining.

Of course, you can expect the sheer aggression, energy, and power with all these complementary sonic elements combined into one harmonious slab of noise, but Bad Idea somehow sounds melodic along the way. Their ability to simultaneously deliver some impressive heavy chord progressions and catchy riffs in combination with equally complex warm-sounding basslines and resonate with some melodies at the same time unquestionably resulted in a unique ambiance. The lead vocal harmonies, back vocals, and singalongs are also highlights of this album, and Bad Idea paid so much attention to vocal arrangements. Sonic Hellride sounds anthemic in so many cases thanks to all these vocal arrangements, and this material will appeal to even the pickiest listeners. This album wouldn’t sound this good without profoundly dynamic rhythmic sequences based upon catchy, well-accentuated beats, breaks, fills, and other percussive acrobatics. The band thought about everything while assembling this material, so you’ll have so much fun listening to it. Therefore, if you’re looking for a good mixture of American hardcore and British streetpunk, Sonic Hellride will be a perfect record for you. The album is available on vinyl, so head over to Bad Idea’s Bandcamp page for more information about ordering.