Cold Years - Goodbye To Misery (April 22, 2022) Album

Who’s here for it?

New Album out April 22, 2022.

Goodbye To Misery

 

@Craig Manning, you ever listen to these guys? I feel like you’d be into them.

 

Cannot wait for this to come out! Also eagerly anticipating Jason’s thoughts in the newsletter.

 

yeahhhhhh I'm here for it

 

It's everything I wanted it to be and more. More thoughts this weekend after probably 30 more plays.

 

intriiiigued

 

Paradise was one of my favorite albums of 2020, I'm sooo ready for this.

 

HERE FOR IT

This band needs to break out. They are terrific

 

Found this band a few years back, really enjoyed the last record, but honestly forgot they existed. Just getting around to checking out these new songs now and really liking what I’m hearing

A couple of them kind of have a Green Day vibe at times, if Green Day were still making good music

 

The best way to describe the new album is (good) Green Day meets Gaslight. It’s incredible.

 

This band somehow only has 1,000 followers on twitter which is amazing. I bet 5% of them are members of this board

 

i think the last album sounded as you describe as well.

 

I don’t have Twitter but I follow them on Instagram!

 

The Gaslight thing is funny........I hear it too......and always have.....but I can't really quite figure out HOW they sound like Gaslight........but something in there reminds me of them..........maybe it's the drums??

Certainly on face value they don't sound that much like them

 

Some bands just write songs that have an almost nostalgic feeling to them, even if it’s something you’ve never heard before. If that makes sense. These guys, Gaslight, The Menzingers, etc. It all feels kind of familiar in a comforting way.

 

Especially in their earlier work, plus the gravel voice with some Bruce influence doesn't hurt.

I think the new album has more theatrics, I know they've mentioned Black Parade in their PR for it, but I get a lot of American Idiot as well. But that nostalgic songwriting element is still super strong, this one more about the lost years of the pandemic.

 

Here is the new bio btw:

This was probably coming. The dam was surely always going to break. Had you listened to Ross Gordon speak over the past few years, read between the lines of his lyrics, or paid attention to the more seething moments of Cold Years’ 2020 debut album Paradise, you could have predicted that something had to give. As the incendiary spirit of the band’s new album Goodbye To Misery attests, ‘something’ might be an understatement. Everything has changed. This is the sound of the fight-or-flight kicking in, of deciding that enough is enough, and the trio – completed by guitarist Fin Urquhart and bassist Louis Craighead – demanding better. Most importantly, it’s them doing something about it all. The time for pissing and moaning is done. As the singer and guitarist succinctly puts it, “I’m not self-destructive or miserable anymore.”

In the past, Ross never made any secret of his frustrations with feeling trapped in the suffocating environs of his native Aberdeen. It’ll surprise no one to learn that he’s recently moved south to Glasgow. A relocation that’s as much about sanity and survival as it is an escape.

“That was a huge thing for me,” he stresses, offering extra context as to why these new songs hit differently. “I'd never lived away from home before, but I needed to get away. My heart just wasn't in the place I was from anymore. I’d changed. I wanted to become a better person, and I think I did. For the first time in my life since I was a kid, I actually feel like I have a home now.”

Of the 12 new songs that make up the record, only three were written in Aberdeen. The rest came out in a flurry of big city inspiration while Ross, like millions of others in the UK, found himself on furlough. Because yes, the shadow that looms large over this story is the same one that continues to colour almost every aspect of all our daily lives. Forced, by lockdown, to share ideas with Louis and Fin over email instead of letting things percolate in pubs over pints like they used to, the songs naturally shaped up in brand new ways. Infused with new energy and new feelings, the band decided to let rip and explore those impulses, stepping out of their collective comfort zones in the process. Originally, one song was seven minutes long. Another features a 1940s air raid siren. They even considered using a bagpipe at one point (...maybe next time). At its most boisterous, guitars duel in a fashion reminiscent of My Chemical Romance’s harmonic hat-tipping to Queen on The Black Parade. Drums – recorded for the album by “the second coming of John Bonham” Sam Ogden, from Static Dress – are now thrust front and centre as a feature piece, with marching band beats, snare rolls and fills levelling up what might have been a simple 4/4 in the past. Elsewhere, there’s Green Day’s stadium- sized command of a chorus on show, paired with the sort of venom you tend to find

hidden under the melodic sheen of Against Me! in full flow. As Ross says, “it’s a fucking punk rock record,” with a freewheeling spirit and fearless attitude to boot. Captured in all its ’we’re generation Fuck It All’ glory on the audacious opener, 32, this is a band with nothing to lose, throwing everything they’ve got into every moment.

“None of us are ever going to pay our mortgages off, none of us are going to be debt free, and none of us are going to retire,” the vocalist reasons. “That’s all gone for our generation. But because of that we’re really good at taking chances. Whereas previous generations have been more cautious.

“I couldn't give a fuck what’s going to happen to me when I'm 65. You need to live life in the moment. You need to take chances. And that was something I was always scared to do. But I'm not scared anymore.”

If you’ve ever wondered if there’s something better out there, suspected that this can’t be all that there is, or felt that you deserve more in life, Goodbye To Misery is a record that will resonate hard. You can stay where you are and grind yourself into despair, or you can go out and get what you deserve. Because the world owes you no favours. There aren’t going to be any saviours rising from these streets. Blazing with fury, regret, addiction and defiance, Cold Years pull on all these threads with aplomb. They cover relationships and societal issues. It gets deeply personal yet offers a universal call to arms. Understandably, the songs often hark back to some dark nights of the soul. “During lockdown, I spent a lot of nights rolling about on my kitchen floor drunk because I had nothing else to do and I lived on my own,” Ross recalls. “It was a really weird time. Looking back at it now, I'm like, ‘Fucking hell, that was really difficult. And I still somehow stayed positive throughout it all. I don’t know how I managed that.”

On other nights time was passed with long solo drives down deserted motorways, listening to podcasts or rediscovering music with only a share-sized bag of M&Ms for comfort and company. But rather than wallow in the woes, these are songs that reframe and reject the allure of self-pity. It’s fitting then, that the love of music itself would be a creative catalyst and a light through all that darkness, honoured and celebrated most potently in the title-track.
“I wouldn’t be the person I am right now if it wasn’t for music,” Ross summarily offers. There were so many times when I was in such a bad mental place. But I would put a record on, pour myself a glass of wine, and shut the night out. I fell in love with so many records again. Music is like the blood in my veins, and the air that I breathe.”
In amongst all this newfound optimism and positivity, there’s also more legitimate rage and rebellion than you’ll find on most modern punk records. Rest assured, Cold Years are

still firmly kicking against the pricks. If anything, they sound even more riled than ever. Understandable, given the many reasons to be. Take Britain Is Dead, for example. A song that reminds us that if you’re not angry you’re not paying attention.

“It’s not even political, it’s a moral stance. Ever since Brexit [happened], our country's been a total fucking disgrace,” Ross states in no uncertain terms. “People are fighting over toilet roll. You’ve got supermarkets trying to stamp a Union Jack on everything to make it seem premium. That's how stupid this country is, and we're run by a clown, leeching off taxpayers, and cutting welfare at a time when people are struggling the most.”

Clearly warming to the theme he continues, “There's nothing to be proud of if you're British. The Empire has done nothing but exploit and rob civilizations for years. Being British is not something that I associate with, and it's not something I think most people of our generation think is cool. It's embarrassing. And we're the laughingstock of the world now.”

But on record this kind of righteous fire-breathing never gets the better of hope. As the world slowly ekes its way back to some semblance of what it once was, there are many reasons to be cheerful. It’s not naïve to want or believe in a better tomorrow. Lessons from the past and present, however, must also be learned.

“I’ve missed being in a crowd, I’ve missed my friends, my family, and my partner,” the frontman asserts. “We’ve all missed out on births, anniversaries, parties, and it makes you realise how much we took for granted. Every time I sit in a restaurant and have a meal, or anytime I drink a pint in a pub, I think about that. I don't take these things forgranted anymore.”

As the record goes home on the uplifting message of Control, tying the many threads and themes together with a final flurry, it reminds us again that despite the prevailing tide of doom and gloom, every one of us has the power to affect change.
“We all feel control sometimes. I’ve felt controlled in many different ways, whether that was by a job, a government, a relationship, an addiction or a compulsion. This song – this record – is saying you can break away from those things that are bringing you down. It’s about standing up for yourself and not letting anybody tell you what you should or shouldn’t be doing. It’s a defiant statement.”

 

Feels like a band I should have known about forever ago! They sound so.. established? I was surprised to learn theyre as new as they are. I have only listened to '32' and will hold out til the album's out but this is so so good. Super theatrical gaslight vibes.

 

ps @Craig Manning just gonna want to put this on your radar now

 

After reading that, it seems like these guys are way ahead of their time when it comes to songwriting considering this will be their sophomore album! Unless Death Chasers is considered an album and not an EP.

Regardless, after hearing these new songs....it seems like they've been doing this longer than they have been.

 

I saw them in December here in Edinburgh and it was such a class gig. Tiny room, floor level stage, large portion of crowd were friends and family, due to it being the closest to a hometown show they had. 250 cap room (if that). Hope they blow up like they deserve to on this cycle! Ross also sounds incredible live.

 

Oh yeah, I like this single a lot. I enjoyed their last album, but it never quite got into that "love" territory for me. This sounds like a step up.

 

Uhhh........this sentence.........YES SIR !!

Elsewhere, there’s Green Day’s stadium- sized command of a chorus on show, paired with the sort of venom you tend to find hidden under the melodic sheen of Against Me! in full flow.

 

Not sure, I found them about a year ago, somebody on these boards recommended them in the Gaslight thread. Instant love for me. They may consider this their soph album but they do have 3 EP's that came out prior to the debut so really they have about 3 albums full of material.

 

Have these guys ever played a show in the States? Would love to see them snag an opening slot on a good tour this year or next.