As December Falls - 'Alive'
As December Falls deliver a classic Pop-Punk performance in their latest single ‘Alive’.
Since their self-titled debut album in 2019, Nottingham based alternative rock/ pop punk band As December Falls have built up a strong and loyal fan-base, many of whom know it is only a matter of time before they strike gold. ‘Alive’, the new single released for their upcoming 2023 album ‘Join the Club’, is a great demonstration of why the fans' predictions are well-founded.
Having been announced as the first headliners for the Make a Scene festival, the onus is certainly on Beth Curtis and co to deliver the blood circulating tracks worthy of a headliner. ‘Alive’ definitely succeeds in this regard. Immediately punching you in the face with high octane drums and guitars, the band keeps the momentum high for the full length of the song. It's certainly easy to imagine yourself in a brightly coloured mosh pit while listening to ‘Alive’, and probably just as easy to imagine ones ears ringing once their set is complete if the rest of their tracks reach the same level of noise. In the current rock sphere bands live and die by their boldness and willingness to stand out from the crowd; this is something that ADF have in spades. Rock purists will surely love the huge guitar solo that the band delivers to us at the back end of the track, its intensity boosted by the vivid production.
Vocally, front-woman Beth is at the top of her game, her Pop-Punk inflections undoubtedly inspired by the great Hayley Williams. Lyrically, she has stated that the song is “about being enveloped in the blackness and coming out unscathed on the other side”. The upbeat tempo on display here certainly does make you feel like you’re escaping from something continuously chasing after you. There is nothing more Pop-Punk than writing an upbeat / fast tempo song about a dark subject matter; that and putting in a lyric about something or someone ‘leaving this town’, which is also present here funnily enough.
Words by Josh Wilkey
