The Raging Nathans owe a lot of their sound to the ‘90s punk scene. One thing they don’t take after, though, is that need to put out an album of 15+ tracks. Still Spitting Blood comes just one year after Waste My Heart and it’s only 10-songs and 20-minutes in length. The quantity is probably there, but the band is spreading it out.
And while the band is influenced by the ‘90s, what separates them is that they’ve moved on. They pull a lot of familiar elements, especially the guitar tones, but it feels contemporary. It’s not an homage or copycat the way many ‘90s bands copied the Ramones who came before them (so I guess I’m saying this is not EpiFatCore, I guess??).
The record starts nicely, but it takes a while to get into full swing. The first few songs are medium-tempo melodic songs. It’s the guitar that kicks off “Doubt” where Still Spitting Blood kicks into gear for me. Then “The Lime Pit” follows, which is one of the album’s standouts. It uses a mix of choppy skatepunk riffs combined with a tasteful whoa-oh chorus. It’s aggressive, yet accessible. What makes it pop are Josh Goldman’s vocals, which balance some serious anger, zeal and a softer side too. It’s a full range of emotion, packed neatly into a 2:45 package. Then the title track follows, which is the heaviest thing you’ll hear on this record. The band says it’s influenced by ’77 punk and that comes through in the gang vocal chorus, but it’s really the drumming that makes this song hit hard. “Nothing I Can Do” is another standout, one I’d say shows more of that ’77 punk than the title track. It even has some East Bay-style walking bass lines. “Waste of Time” has that earnest Midwestern pop-punk tone. It all culminates with “This World,” featuring some rumbling bass, skatepunk riffs, and downer-yet-singalong refrains.
Sure, you may find yourself thinking of different classic punk bands while listening to The Raging Nathans, but they do it their own way. The band has familiar elements of their influences, but it’s not derivative. It has the anger of street punk, the melody of pop-punk, and the urgency of skatepunk. But it doesn’t fit the genre tropes. It’s authentic and the heart shines through. It starts a little slow, but builds to a big finish.
