Go It Alone have been known for being a hardcore punk band that focuses on a back-to-basics, no frills form of hardcore punk that focuses on portraying a real outlook on life that is void of any sugar-coating and is true to the human heart. This band has definitely come a long way from playing local shows in Vancouver, BC, and are now tearing up the rest of North America in addition to territories in Europe, South America, and Asia. Their second full-length and most recently released album, “Histories,” is an introspective look at how life always seems to distract us from achieving the goals that we set our hopes and dreams upon when we were young. Keeping true to the spirit of hardcore, and the raw emotion that Go It Alone are known for, “Histories” provides one of the year’s best punk albums.

Opening up with a simplistic guitar riff that works itself into a fast-paced rough sound in “Relics,” the album picks up back where Go It Alone’s last record (“The Only Blood Between Us”) left off. “Histories” rarely gives the listener a break and makes sure to keep the adrenaline flowing strong as each track progresses into the other. Songs like “Rapture,” “Observer,” and “Hate” provide typical fast-paced hardcore songs that have become familiar to every hardcore punk enthusiast, while creating an additional ambiance of melody and creativity that isn’t seen too often within the hardcore scene. Songs like “Deserter,” “Love,” and “Monastery” are among Go It Alone’s more epic works in the sense that they showcase the immense talent that the band has. To start a song off slow and be able to build it up to a point of strong intensity is an art form that isn’t easily achieved. Indeed, Go It Alone provide several tracks that could remain as historic as songs from bands like Gorilla Biscuits or Integrity, given the enormity of creative effort present on “Histories.”

The best part about this album is that it still sounds like something Go It Alone would put out, but at the same time it is much more experimental than anything they’ve done in the past. Though it is obvious that melodic hardcore and punk rock have influenced the band and their more recent sound, they’re still able to come out and make hardcore as creative as bands like Dag Nasty had in the 80’s, or how Lifetime had in the 90’s. Though hardcore punk is generally not as popular in current times as metalcore or pop punk, Go It Alone make a strong case that hardcore punk isn’t just confined to the typical abrasive sound that has been influenced so strongly by 80’s and early 90’s hardcore bands. “Histories” is proof itself that hardcore isn’t a constant sound that everyone copies and spits out year after year. This album has shown the world that hardcore can be an artistic, introspective, and motivational source of music that can have as big of an impact, and influence as many people, as Miles Davis, the Ramones, and Public Enemy have in the past.