Choncy: 20X MULTIPLIER [Album Review]

by

Choncy
20X MULTIPLIER
Feel It Records [2024]

Album Overview: Choncy is a four-piece punk band hailing from Cincinnati, Ohio that has just released their sophomore album, 20X MULTIPLIER. Following their 2023 debut, Community Chest, also on Feel It Records, Choncy continues to carve out their niche in the punk scene. Recorded at The Bomb Shelter in Nashville by Joe and Jack Tellman, this album embraces an even rawer and unhinged hardcore sound.

Musical Style: Choncy’s music is a frenzied blend of angular post-punk and abrasive hardcore. Their sound is captured by relentless basslines, sharp drumming, splintering guitars, and off-kilter vocals. 20X MULTIPLIER’s songs consistently push their boundaries, delivering an intoxicating mix of catchy punk call-outs and several outright screaming attacks. I will say that their more brutal hardcore tracks here lost me a little as I feel Choncy’s overall post-punk style is killer.

Evolution of Sound: With 20X MULTIPLIER, Choncy refines their direction as they bridge more gaps between different punk subgenres. They experiment with more manic and chaotic arrangements as the overarching theme feels darker with a maturation in their songwriting and performance.

Artists with Similar Fire: Choncy’s harder sound can be likened to classic bands such as Black Flag and Minor Threat while their contemporaries that come to mind are METZ, earlier Idles, and Pissed Jeans, who also blend elements of post-punk and hardcore to create intense and visceral music.

Pivotal Tracks: “Dead Meat” demonstrates Choncy’s unique spin on contemporary punk, setting the tone for the album’s frenetic energy. “Big Time Lotto” was an instant favorite with its muscular riff and then especially when lead singer Liam Shaw rattles off quickly, “I just won, I just won, I just won – Big Time Lotto!” It is this kind of track you envision a live crowd going nuts over. Lastly, the opening track “Opportunity Cost” will hook with its Brainiac pulses and Devo undertones as Choncy’s punk rises to the top!

Lyrical Strength: Choncy’s lyrics delve into themes of profit margins, budget cuts, and man-made horrors, offering up many different viewpoints that meet the album’s punk delivery. Their words are sharp and incisive, painting vivid images with the album’s 9 songs packaged in a tight 20 minutes. 20X MULTIPLIER serves as a proclamation of what could have been in the only way that a solid punk rock record can!

CHONCY LINKS
 Instagram / Linktree / Bandcamp / Feel It Records

Thomas Wilde
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