Ha!ls - "Rock And Rolls" EP Review!!!

It's now time for our 173rd monthly CD review at The Sault Metal Scene, and with our lengthy review backlog in its later stretches, our penultimate review of 2023 is of newer local punk trio Ha!ls' debut EP "Rock And Rolls"! Released to their Bandcamp page on July 4th (though print runs on CD and cassette tape were teased earlier this month via their Instagram page), this is the first release from the Vanity First side project, who quietly & independently recorded this EP earlier this year. Hails are represented here by Slumshine's Brenton "B.G" Ellis on vocals & bass alongside guitarist Mikhal Muto (Agnosticism/The Apocalypse Afterparty) and drummer Keeghan McAllister. All album artwork, digital and physical alike, is handled by Brent, who is a noted painter & visual artist beyond music. "Rock & Rolls" is on sale on Bandcamp for $7 and can also be streamed for free there, but consider buying it to support their work!

As per an Instagram post on September 6th, this EP is also "streaming errrrrrrrvrywhere", and by "errrrrrrrvrywhere", they mean YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and... Boomplay? It's not clear if the CD and cassette copies are currently on sale or not, but when availability of them is confirmed, we'll let you know! Tape runs of Brent's recent albums have tended to go for $10 apiece. With four songs running for just under 10 minutes, let's begin with short EP review!

Ha!ls' EP kicks off with a 34 seconds long track named "The Horns", which is a galloping instrumental that calls to mind the one-off metal songs on early Sum 41 CDs moreso than the advertised skate punk. Not a problem for me, but I do wish that this was fleshed out into a longer song, as I was just getting into it when it ended! Next up is the longest song on offer, "Down For Life", which is about rising above low/non-ideal conditions and discovering freedom. Keeping on the same in-your-face trajectory but with more of a punk edge, Brent's vocals are sung with passion before clarity, so you really have to pay attention to hear what he's singing (or read the lyrics alongside). Keegan's drumming never lets up aside from the bridge, and Mikhal shows his stuff well on guitar, so skate punk fans will be right at home with this song, especially as it borders on hardcore punk for most of its runtime!

The third song on "Rock and Rolls" is "Thrashmastertenbillion" (no spaces), which seems to be about living on the edge and for the thrill/danger of (if I'm reading the lyrics correctly) skateboarding. Another blistering skate punk song, this gets more of the fast-paced intensity that worked so well on "Down For Life", but Brent's vocals remain hard to distinguish on a casual listen, and for a song that barely cracks 2 minutes, the "whoa-oh" bridge really eats up too much time. Structurally, I do prefer "Down For Life" as a composition, but both songs will entertain subgenre fans! Hails' EP ends with "Nowhere Wolf", whose lyrics seem to correlate drug addiction with turning into a werewolf (I hope I connected the right dots). The only song on offer that doesn't grab you by the throat musically from the off, it instead leads with some bouncy guitar work from Mikhal and simple rhythms before a wolf howl signals the punk onset.

From 0:55 on, we're in skate punk territory, but Mikhal does get some more flourish on his guitar lines, and Brent's singing does have more an affect put onto it than on the prior two songs, while Keeghan gets more room to show off his drumming! The track ends with background atmosphere noises, including a howling wind, but I think it killed the song's mood a bit as the song didn't really allude to the ominous themes as much as the lyrics. Still a quality closer to the EP for punk fans! So, how is Hails' debut EP? Overall, it will definitely get the job done for fans of modern skate/hardcore punk, and it's a promising first entry into original recordings! Comparisons to Vanity First's debut EP will be natural given Mikhal & Keeghan are in both groups, and while Hails benefited from better recording quality here, Brent's vocals are not as clear across the board as Andrew Beggs' were for Vanity.

Of Brent's prior bands, I'd point fans of his stint with Toronto's Maximum RNR to Ha!ls for the in-your-face punk attack and focused delivery of the instrments, and his involvement with Mikhal & Keeghan definitely gives them a good shine from his experience! That said, this is much faster and heavier than Brent's prior local band, These Magnificent Tentacles, not to mention his solo work in Slumshine. While a good EP with lots of punk action pound for pound, I'd have lengthened "The Horns", dropped the bridge on "Thrashmaster...", and had Brent's vocals handled in a clearer (even more Detroit-esque) fashion. Still, if songs like "Down For Life" are anything to go by, Hails have a bright future ahead, so buy/stream "Rock and Rolls" above, and I hope you guys liked this month's CD review! Next month, I will finally look at Mike Haggith's newest album "All The Best In All You Do"!

Our lengthy new album review backlog is almost cleared out, and as such, I feel like I'm the last person to talk about Mike's new album, but we're doing it right to close 2023, as the review will include all ten songs plus the five bonus cuts from the Bandcamp download copies and the "Rose Edition" in the DVD case. Watch for that review by year's end, and for a new news post on the site tomorrow! Thanks everyone!