New Age Jesus – The Rumperts
Punk rockers The Rumperts is a band that I haven’t heard before, which always makes an album interesting, and so when New Age Jesus landed in my inbox I didn’t know what to expect. This four-piece is from Vienna, and New Age Jesus is their second album, following up on 2021’s Escapism.
Listening to the first track, sitting in the bar of a burger joint having some food and beer by myself, I get the feeling that this is going to be some punked up garage-rock. Nazzissist definitely has that vibe, both musically and lyrically. But containing through the album it’s clear that The Rumperts are more than that, blending styles from several sub-genres on the punk spectrum.
Already on the second track it’s clear that the band has influences from melodic hardcore as well as more straight up punkrock. And on some tracks there are some pop-punk vibes to be had, mainly on Cheesburger. For me The Rumperts are at their best when they’re mixing aggressive verses with a really catchy chorus, as on tracks like Liquid Diet, Mutiny and Slob. Those tracks hit the right mix of attitude and catchiness and get stuck in my head right away.
Lyrically it’s pretty straight forward but also easy to identify oneself with. Although a big part of Europe has gone more politically to the far right, Austria was early with that tendency, and the frustration with that situation can be heard clearly in places on this album. As the album was written during the pandemic, there are some remnants of that floating around, but it doesn’t define the album. Overall it’s well written and never too abstract or lavish.
On the production side, the record sounds clean and well produced but without sacrificing som of that dirty punkrock feeling. It was recorded in the kind of legendary Blasting Room in Colorado, where many big American punk-bands come to record. That flight over the Atlantic sure was worth it for The Rumperts.
The frontmans voice is just the right kind of gruffy, but something I find myself wishing is that they would use the female talents in the band vocally a bit more. I can understand not being comfortable in front of the microphone, but I also tend to think that bands that mixes male and female vocalists adds a cool dynamic. There are some use of it in Nazissist, but gets less used throughout the album. But The Rumperts get some nice depth in the choirs out of that on many of the songs.
The Rumperts manages a nice mix of lyrical themes, a bit of mix in tempo and in styles on New Age Jesus which makes this a fun listen throughout. The band hits the right mix of energy and melody on many places and some songs really get stuck in my head after having listened to the album. I think a lot of people would have a great bit of fun listening this to this, and my recommendation is to check it out.
The album is out 28/4-2023 on SBÄM Records