Album Review: Stick To Your Guns – Keep Planting Flowers (SharpTone Records)

Stick To Your Guns, the Orange County, CA hardcore outfit channel unbridled catharsis on their eighth full-length offering and Sharptone Records debut LP, ‘Keep Planting Flowers’, out 10th January 2025.

New year, new album, same hardcore heavy and defiant mentality from Stick to Your Guns, it doesn’t matter how familiar things are when it comes with this kind of lovable intensity. Yet, even then, this album is a distillation of who Stick to Your Guns are and what they are capable of. Ten tracks that come with a ton of vitriol, showcases anger and frustration at the way the world is, but demands that you stand tall and try to make the world a better place by not letting the struggle break you.

A seemingly impossible task, at times, but made just that little bit easier, thanks to the explosive ferocity of a track like We All Die Anyway, a hearty reminder of the fleeting nature of life, and the fanatical hardcore heaviness of Spineless. It is, as always, an absolute delight to hear this band as manic and mean as this, but even more so when it has blood-pumping anthemic elements too.

This is what makes Stick to Your Guns so special.

Not that there’s anything wrong with a track that is more of an explosive cacophony, such as Permanent Dark. After all, who doesn’t enjoy a good old-fashioned stomp around? Albeit one with an experimental melody twist. Nor is there anything wrong with the rolling drumbeat, discordiant guitars, and egregious vocals roar that introduces the wild Invisible Rain. The energy of this one is unforgettable, but a metalcore-style chorus adds a bit more accessibility to the relentless intensity of this one. Classic Stick to Your Guns variety, unafraid to mix thing ups, while ensuring that a brutal delivery is still at the forefront of everything they do.

Keeping things very palatable, from a hardcore-infused perspective, with the infectious Severed Forever, an absolute beast of a modern metal track. Then delivering a masterclass in pit-inducing excitability with the very punchy, More Than a Witness. A track that has a strong old-school punk-tinged hardcore style about it. Before adding layers of emotionally effective melody into the massive post-hardcore hit that is the excellent title track and then combining pop-punk sensibilities with unforgettable big rock and metal vibes on the thrilling Eats Me Up.

How do Stick to Your Guns cap off such a classy record? By inviting some guests to join them on the final two tracks, and what guest they are. First up, it’s Terror and the fifty-five second blast of brutish noise that is Who Needs Who. One of the most aggressive tracks of the album. Then, it’s Seeyouspacecowboy and the track H84U, a frantic and explosive finish to an album that embodies what it feels like to have heart palpitations.

An on form Stick to Your Guns are a near-untouchable band, and this album is them at their finest. No fluff, no wasted time, sharp, and delivered with bright and brilliant intensity.

Stick To Your Guns – Keep Planting Flowers Track Listing:

1. We All Die Anyway
2. Spineless
3. Permanent Dark
4. Invisible Rain
5. Severed Forever
6. More Than a Witness
7. Keep Planting Flowers
8. Eats Me Up
9. Who Needs Who (feat. Terror)
10. H84U (feat. Seeyouspacecowboy)

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