Melodic hardcore seems to be falling back into favor these days, which is a good thing in my opinion. And Massachusetts' No Trigger provides an excellent debut full-length that doesn't stray from the tried-and-true. Everything you'd expect from a melodic hardcore band is here: breakneck speeds, good ol' guitar solos, gang vocals, etc., and though it's not as fresh a take on the genre as Nitro Records' other recently signed act, Crime in Stereo, it's still more than solid.
No Trigger's sound is somewhere between Rise Against and Strike Anywhere, with vocalist Tom Rheault retaining aggression throughout, but not missing a chance to show some range with catchy choruses. Like their predecessors, No Trigger also focus on social and political themes in their lyrics, and while you may roll your eyes at the thought of another band who stresses these topics, giving them a chance could surprise you because their lyrics aren't so run-of-the-mill, but at the same time, they're far from life-changing. But how many band's lyrics really are?
Lyrically one of the more interesting endeavors, the song "More to Offer" is also easily one of Canyoneer's highlights. Hitting a topic that has been rarely, if not at all covered, the song "simply deals with the inequalities of gender-specific voices within underground music," as Rheault put it. I don't totally agree with what he's saying, because there are a fair amount of female punk bands out there (of course, nowhere even close to the amount of male-fronted bands), but I don't disagree because it's true that you more often hear the male point of view instead of the female's with punk music. The chorus of this excellent track also has female backup vocals to support the topic, a great aspect that could have easily gone overlooked, it helps set it even further apart from the rest of the songs.
So there you have it, another great release from Nitro Records this year, and a promising showcase of what may come from No Trigger. Although, the final track is pretty weak for a closing song, and nowhere near as "epic" as I had expected, and some of the songs don't stick nearly as well as others both musically and lyrically. Overall this is solid melodic hardcore that does what it set out to do.
