For nearly three decades, Gainesville’s Hot Water Music have been cranking out gruff, melodic punk rock anthems. They’ve spawned legions of imitators, but virtually nobody else has managed to bring that passionate fists-up headrush thing on their level. Today, Hot Water Music have come out with a new LP, and it’s almost bafflingly good.
The new record Feel The Void, the follow-up to 2017’s Light It Up, reunited Hot Water Music with producer Brian McTiernan. McTiernan, formerly of Battery and currently of Be Well, has produced classics for bands like Bane, Converge, and Turnstile. He’s also produced classics for Hot Water Music. McTiernan handled production on three previous Hot Water Music albums — probably the best Hot Water Music albums — and he hasn’t worked with them since 2004’s The New What Next. I don’t know why this band would make their best records with this one particular producer, but those guys just really click in together.
Feel The Void is more than a solid late-period record from a legacy act. The album sticks to the same sounds that Hot Water Music have always made, but it’s ferocious and urgent and extremely tuneful. The band sounds inspired. Hot Water Music always had a ragged, lived-in sound, and maybe a band that sounds old from the beginning just knows how to age gracefully. We’ve already posted the early tracks “Killing Time” and “Collect Your Things And Run,” and now you can stream the full record below.
Feel The Void is out now on Equal Vision Records.
65