What’s old is always new again. We got a full-blown nü metal revival on our hands, noise rock is arguably as popular as it’s ever been, and Myspace-era metalcore is getting about as many new releases from bands with members who were born around the same time the legends were laying the foundation. I was also recently reminded that fucking Greta Van Fleet exists for some godforsaken reason. For some other reason, I feel like we’ve just kinda skipped over a lot of good stuff. Where’s the grunge revival? Where’s the college-rock revival? Where’s the early post-punk revival? Where’s all the shit that sounds like it was made by people who hadn’t yet figured out what genre they were supposed to be in? Why does everyone nowadays sound so ready to be categorized?
Well, Whippets make a case to step into these shoes, sounding something like Unwound by way of Dinosaur Jr. and Jay Reatard, or like Fugazi covering Dismemberment Plan and Siouxsie and the Banshees at the same time. They convey this volatile energy with writhing guitar leads that are often as eerie as they are anthemic, and tuneful bass in a rhythm section that paves the way for both their most unruly and airy moments. Much like their 2024 self-titled release, Whippets again flex their knack for melodies that get their hooks in your eardrums like velcro. No Skulls is every bit as fearless and without boundaries, gaining traction across a multitude of late 80s and early 90s soundscapes, regularly finding familiar touchpoints with the intuition to pull the rug at just the right time, or mix ‘n’ match influences in a way that’s as much “Aha!” as it is “What the fuck?” It’s like post-punk found the perfectly imperfect dancing partner in shoegaze, distraught while still finding an endearing footing, abrasive, oddly charming, and eyebrow-raising all at once.
The video for album opener “These Woods” taps into a similar throwback, like it could’ve been dug out of a shoebox full of forgotten tapes and old zines. With a hazy camcorder look, sunbleached and spliced together with live footage, BMXers, scrapbook imagery, and other ’90s feels, it has the scrappy and surreal feel of something you might’ve stumbled across on MTV’s 120 Minutes at 1 a.m. It’s an appropriate visual companion, familiar enough to trigger a deeply buried memory, but weird enough to feel like you’ve never quite seen it before—and maybe even inspire a bad haircut.
Check it out:
No Skulls drops today, October 2, on wax and digital via No Coast Records.
Jordan Jerabek
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