ETERNAL BOY Releases "Bad Days Are Over"! ALBUM REVIEW

Pittsburgh pop-punk trio Eternal Boy recently released their forthcoming album "Bad Days Are Over" which dropped everywhere on April 30th, 2021 via Four Chord Music.

With touring and concerts out of the question in the shit year known as 2020, the band took the time to write an entire album that focused on much of what has been going on in the world from their own point of view. Song titles like "Nightmare", "A Long Year" and title track "Bad Days Are Over" can almost make you guess what a lot of the album is about.

To me, Eternal Boy has always encapsulated the sound of the golden era of pop-punk in the early 2000s where fast tempos, tight harmony, and clean vocals combined with punchy bass, heavy guitar, and punchy drums dominated the airwaves. The band has definitely stayed true to their sound while also showing hints of the new modern pop-punk/emo sound with a hint of (dare I say, "maturity") with Bad Days Are Over. It's all of the old, the new, and much more.

The title track and latest single "Bad Days Are Over" kicks off the album like a bat out of hell with opening lyrics "Another day stuck in this prison. You can't see straight from tunnel vision", which is definitely one of many nods to the pandemic and being stuck at home in 2020. Never a band to slow down, following track "A Long Year" is the "Letterbomb" of the album with a message to a toxic partner with lyrics "I'm nothing but a fucking waste of time to you" that's reminiscent of the heavier side of pop-punk i.e Four Year Strong minus the screaming parts.

The most relatable track to anyone, including myself, who grew up in the Drive-Thru Era of pop-punk has to be "Thirty Something" which dropped as a single for Eternal Boy back in March. With everyone who grew up in that era of pop-punk now in their 30's the song, as well as music video portrays being an angsty teen falling in young love with lyrics like "Then she turned on The Best Of Me, a song from 2003..." with the video showing everything from N64 and Pokemon cards to band posters from the era as nice subtle nods to that period in time.

Songs like "Listen for the Clues" and "The L Word" feel like definite steps out of Eternal Boy's comfort zone into the modern side of pop-punk featuring major to immediate minor chords, vocal melody change-ups, big, heavy instrumental sections with even bigger breakdowns which are a huge difference in dynamics from previous albums coming from the band. "Promise" is one of my favorite tracks from the album which is the only acoustic track on the album and actually dropped two years ago before the pandemic hit. It's the first acoustic song the band has dropped since 2007's "True Life I Wear Girls Jeans" on album Turn It Up where the band then went by a different name.

"One Dream At A Time" is the perfect example of a clean-cut 3-minute pop-punk tune. It's punchy, clean, and uptempo with lyrics throwing back to a better time looking on one's former self with one of the catchiest choruses I've heard in a long time "I wish I had the nerve to say this ten years ago, but it's just so hard to let things go." The straight-forward pop-punk song has all of the bells and whistles of the nostalgic pop-punk sound reminiscent of NFG circa Sticks & Stones and The Starting Line circa Say It Like You Mean It. Rounding out the record is track "Nightmare" which I hope isn't a premonition to the future, rather than an idea that the nightmare of a post-pandemic world is almost over.

This entire record is a solid 10/10 in means of new meets old pop-punk and a solid 7/10 for any rock music fan in general. You don't even have to be a fan of the pop-punk genre to enjoy this record because each song is so relatable to every living person in this post-COVID-19 world. Eternal Boy has an amazing knack for writing lyrics about their own lives and personal experiences while simultaneously dropping a double entendre meaning about the world as a whole, which draws every listener in as if the song in question is written about them.

But hey, don't take my word for it. Listen to Eternal Boy's latest single and title track "BAD DAYS ARE OVER" below. Check out "Bad Days Are Over" out now via Four Chord Music on all streaming platforms.

ETERNAL BOY - BAD DAYS ARE OVER