Millencolin – True Brew – Review

Seven years after their last album, “Machine 15”, Swedish punk band Millencolin returns with a brand new album, the number 8 of its career; the record, entitled “True Brew”, was released on April 17 2015 by historic label Epitaph and it was preceded by the first single “Sense & Sensibility” in February, which gave hope for a comeback to the typical skate punk sound of the band in the 90’s. The foursome soon make things clear with the enthralling riff of “Egocentric Man”, followed by the more melodic “Chameleon” and “Autopilot Mode”, a little more rough respect to the others, until we arrive to “Bring Me Home”, the classic super-nostalgic song that would listen to real loud when you go skateboarding and because of this it feels a lot like a 90’s song. Then we have the aforementioned “Sense & Sensibility”, a political and anti-racist song, the title track “True Brew” and “Perfection Is Boring”, in which the melodic side of the band comes out again. The second half ot the record begins with the melancholic piano intro of “Wall of Doubt” and right after embraces a trio of songs (“Something I Would Die For”, “Silent Suicide” e “Man of 1000 Tics”) that float away in nearly 5 minutes before we come up to the last two songs, “Mr. Fake Believe” and “Believe in John”, the latter an homage to John Lennon and the love which he has always sung about, that kind of love and spirit that according to Millencolin has gone away nowadays. To sum up, “True Brew” certainly has to be considered a strong comeback to really high levels by one of the most relevant punk rock bands of the 90’s, which apparently doesn’t want to step aside anytime soon, not at all!

TRACKLIST WITH RATINGS:

1. Egocentric Man 7
2. Chameleon 7.5
3. Autopilot Mode 6.5
4. Bring Me Home 8.5
5. Sense & Sensibility 7.5
6. True Brew 8
7. Perfection Is Boring 7
8. Wall of Doubt 6.5
9. Something I Would Die For 7
10. Silent Suicide 6.5
11. Man of 1000 Tics 6
12. Mr. Fake Believe 6
13. Believe in John 7.5

ALBUM RATING: 7

KEY SENTENCE:
‘I don’t wanna live my life doing stuff I don’t like to do
I just wanna spend my time on creating something true
I don’t wanna live my life just pretending what I’m not
I just wanna spend my time living my life on the spot’ – True Brew

Reviewed by A.O.