What does FOOTBALLHEAD sound like?

The very best of 2000’s hardcore rock. Think Green Day, Blink 182 and Basement.

The review of ‘Before I Die’ by FOOTBALLHEAD

A surprising five months after ‘Overthinking Everything‘, the excellent debut album from FOOTBALLHEAD, the band are back with a seven track mini album. The wall of guitars, big chords and a grungy post-hardcore rock smear coats the release. It’s a subtle shift from their debut but it marks FOOTBALLHEAD as a band expanding their sound by placing down bolder markers for each song they’ve created.

photo of FOOTBALLHEAD — Footballhead – photo by Snow Reyes and Julio Reyes

The release opens with ‘My Direction’ – their Blink 182 / Green Day love child track. The guitars follow big power chord chugs but with a radio-friendly structure. There is still fuzz, grizzly grime in the signal chain and it’s that edge that keeps the song crossing into the cleaner side of post-hardcore rock. FOOTBALLHEAD sounds all the better for it too. Snow Ellet, who has mixed and mastered for Basement, knows exactly how to land impactful early 2000s rock and this is tour-de-force from the production side. The reason why is each song sounds and tackles the same vibe slightly differently.

‘Crushing Me’ relies on minor sadness chords that hint at a sludgy undercurrent. It rages and riots like a rock anthem but the chords are too alternative for radio rock of that era. ‘Stupefied’ goes sludgier still with a grungy gaze over the guitars like a peak MTV posterchild. FOOTBALLHEAD doesn’t need to crank up the tempo. Instead, vocalist Ryan is able to switch gears from emo-Americana to something darker and more sincere. ‘Before I Die’ is an interesting change of pace and mood. Its open-air lighter-waving swagger makes it the most approachable and radio-friendly track on the album. ‘Your Ghost’ is a wild mix of darker, heavy rock with an aggressive hook and guitar solo breaking away to breezy moments of reflection. It is controlled aggression that boils over on the short but memorable ‘All For What?’. The screamo middle shows FOOTBALLHEAD can go hard like the rest of them but that cathartic purge of emotions must be earned.

For an album that has its lyrical thesis grounded in bitterness and cynicism, it is remarkably upbeat in an eye-rolling FFS way. This mood is captured perfectly on the closing track ‘In Motion’. The grizzly switch from acoustic-tinged guitars to big hooks and guitar solos are strident and confident. Each chug has a cynical “uh-huh” nod hiding underneath it and the band play it up perfectly. Add in some frequency-faded telephone percussion and just enough guitar sizzle when the big chords shift and you have an anthem ready to rumble.

I’ve focused a lot on the production during this review but it’s because so many bands find one sound and stick with it. What marks FOOTBALLHEAD out from many other bands is they have a central axis of emo tinged 90s radio rock but they embrace other things too. From the poppier side (‘Before I Die’) that you could hear on BBC Radio 6 to the hardcore riffs ready for the front cover of Kerrang! – it is all here neatly in a 20-minute burst of energy. This is another tightly woven release that will only garner new fans for FOOTBALLHEAD. I’m back in my happy place again with something that’s both familiar and new.

Recommended track: In Motion

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