This Chicago-based pop-punk band is bringing that old-school pop-punk feel back to the forefront. Cliffhanger's sound, while rooted in the older feel, doesn't feel stale or overdone as they take the old nostalgia of the genre and repackage it. From their tracks to their music videos, this band knows how to play on the memories of Warped Tour.
On October 23rd, Cliffhanger released BRAIN BLEED, an EP that takes us back over a decade but keeps us in the present.
BRAIN BLEED has me playing it over again and again already, and it hasn't even been 24 hours, so you can imagine what I can do with this EP over time! I love their music already, as it does have that old-school pop-punk vibe that made me really love the sound when I was younger and cemented it in my top subgenres. It feels like Cliffhanger teleports back to the early 2000s to write and record, and it's honestly not often a band hits my nostalgia in the gut with such ease and accuracy!
The tracks "Brain Bleed" and "Tripped (Into Madness)" are probably my top two songs! I love that the lines, "You're playing your own game, it won't go my way / Tonight's important because everything's okay / Is anyone in there, cause you won't listen / Can anyone help me...." are done so that one vocalist will sing the first part of the line, then alternate to a second vocalist before they come together to sing the line "out" to finish off the lines in the song "Tripped (Into Madness)". Whereas "Come Back" combines pop punk and some nice harshes that creates a fun chaos that I will never listen to at a normal volume, so it's close to the top too!
Can I just choose the whole EP honestly?
Their music videos even meet the fun older-school pop-punk vibes that made us fall in love with music videos! The video for "Brain Bleed" came out at 12 am last night, and you know I was sitting waiting for it to come out so I could click play!
If Vans Warped Tour doesn't pick these guys up in 2027, then I will honestly riot for them, because they would be a perfect candidate for the Ernie Ball brand! I would love to see some of the nostalgia tours and showcases pick up on these guys! When "Tripped(Into Madness)" was released, they aired it on the BSB TV industry stream run by huge pop-punk fans Ben Pritchard and Danny Marty Ray, who gave the track and video high praise! And if they have Ben and Danny on their side, then you know that it has to be a good band.
Photo Credit: Maria Eduarda Couto
I really love this band and have for a while! I hope to see them get picked up by radio so that our kids can relive those nostalgic years in their own ways! But I always just really want to see this band get the flowers they deserve. It's not often you find music that takes you back to easier times in the way that Cliffhanger is able to.
