Don’t Hit It, Just Quit It

Imagine a group of dads trying to combine Dropkick Murphys and Blood for Blood and not even coming close to succeeding; now you have an idea of what the newest record from The Welch Boys, Bring Back the Fight, sounds like. Instrumentally, this album sounds like any one of a hundred Boston punk bands, but the problem lies in the singer’s attempt at tough guy hardcore vocals that occasionally also sound like James Hetfield, which is never what you want. The Welch Boys sound like a moderately successful bar band at best, and with their mismatched musical style, this album isn’t likely to stick out in the sea of similar punk releases this year.

Like any cheesy hardcore record, Bring Back the Fight starts with a 40 second “Intro” consisting solely of barroom chanting and cheering with a sports announcer overtop– something that hasn’t been cool in about 15 years, if ever. The clichéd style just continues from there with a string of try-too-hard attempts at punk sing-along anthems, like “Where Have All the Boot Boys Gone?” It gets pretty hard to tell the difference between the tracks right on through to the end. Bring Back the Fight ends in just as corny a fashion as it begins with an identical “Outro,” silly chanting and all.

It’s difficult to imagine that a good ol’ Boston hardcore band wouldn’t be, at the very least, moderately enjoyable and good for a few solid bangers, but Bring Back the Fight doesn’t even provide us with that. The entire record is just so disjointed it’s uncomfortable to listen to, and if the Welch Boys want any chance of changing that, they’re going to have to find a much better singer. Unless you’re looking for something that sounds like a parody of itself, punk fans would be better off skipping right over this record.