Talk about unexpected! One of my favorite underrated bands from the original Seattle music scene, Coffin Break, has reemerged with their first album since 1992! Featuring a collection of re-recorded songs from their heyday, the band, bassist/vocalist Rob Skinner, guitarist/vocalist Pete Litwin and drummer Dave Brooks, have been joined by guitarist Todd Ohashi and boy do the results sound great.
Opening track “Noise Patch,” originally from 1989, still sounds fresh and powerful. Great old school grunge sound mixed with a lifetime of listening to punk rock. One of my personal favorites, “World” from 1990 still sounds fucking great. Good, underrated punk classic. The way the band was able to successfully straddle the line between grunge and punk and still fit right in with the burgeoning sound was always one of their strongest suits.
Songs like “Obsession,” “() the President” and “Stupid Love Song” sound amazing with Rob and Peter’s vocals sounding in some ways stronger than they did in the ’90s, which is quite impressive. There isn’t much else to say; these songs are still kickass and some of them are still quite relevant in 2025, which is all the more insane.
Hearing one of my literal all-time favorite tracks, “For Beth” from 1991, in a new context and the music is even sludgier than 30-plus years ago just makes my heart flutter. This song is vastly underrated and needs to be heard by more people. That the band decided to add the song on here speaks volumes to what they think of the track.
Overall, this is the surprise of the year. Hearing about the record’s release about a month ago was a surprise itself and then hearing this band play again just sounds great. They don’t play live often and probably haven’t been to the East Coast since around 1992, but that doesn’t mean they still can’t sound kickass and this album proves they should be remembered better than they are.