After leaving their former label, the Dallas, Texas-based Dead Words has landed on their feet. There isn’t a lot of material on Hey Rockers, but the band’s punk heart bleeds through the quick jabs of the tracks. It reminds me of the first time I heard 1,039 Smoothed Out Slappy Hours, one of Green Day’s first albums. As history would show, it wasn’t nearly as good as Dookie, but it was an album Green Day had to make to get to Kerplunk! to get to Dookie. Hopefully, Dead Words has the same kickstart some of those other lucky punks have taken advantage of.
Features

In a World of Hurt
...a kind word goes a long way. "When it comes to writing and music, these are the gifts God has given me and that’s what I want to use to further the Kingdom and return those things back to God."
By Andrew Voigt
Full Feature More from Earth Groans
The Top 25 Albums of 2020
When the going gets tough, artists create art. Despite a world reckoning outside our quarantined doors, musicians relentlessly created new music giving birth to genre-defining releases and, despite a year spent indoors, a marked 2020 full of passion and fervor. Here are our Top 25 albums of 2020.
By David Stagg
Full Feature More from HM Magazine
The Space for Rebirth
On Age of the Abstract's new EP, 'Rebirth,' the duo explores what a new sound looks like apart from the day-job in Canidria. Here, contributing writer Andrew Voigt talks with Julio Arias about influence, vision, and how writing in the wake of his father's death propelled the band forward.
By Andrew Voigt
Full Feature More from Age of the Abstract
Droning On
The world came to a halt in 2020, but London-based Drones trudged on, giving a voice to the hurt that circulates with (or without) a pandemic: "You shouldn’t underestimate the power of writing things down or literally speaking them out loud, which I’m learning. I’m glad I made these songs, no matter how personal they are."
Full Feature More from DronesMusic Reviews
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Influence
Everything in Slow MotionReview by Nao Lewandowski
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Vols. 6 and 7
United We SkateReview by Nao Lewandowski