It’s easy to look at ska-punk, particularly skacore as a dead genre, with its peak in the early 00’s and many of the more recent successes have split up in the last couple of years (Anti-Vigilante, Random Hand and Beat the Red Light amongst others). If this EP proves anything it’s that interesting releases can still come from the genre with this arguably being the most unique skacore release since Beat the Red Light last released an album (over 5 years ago), one of the very few previous bands able to mix ska punk and metal influences well together.
With every track over the 4 minute mark this is a very musically indulgent EP, every track jam-packed full with strong lengthy movements. With compositions this strong it’s no surprise to know how long the band have been working on this EP. It’s good to hear a band, particularly in ska and punk that isn’t afraid of solo’s, this release has a lot of them and in a range of styles – not 10 minutes into the EP you will have heard a fast metal solo on guitar and a slow building long saxophone solo in a breakdown, showing masterful musicianship within the band.
Although on the face of things Geistfight certainty fall into the ska-punk genre it would be incredibly unfair to limit them to this due to the clear wide range of influences on Ruin or Worse. There’s straight up punk, metal, funk (seriously that bass) and rock, this could fit next to CD’s on so many type of fan’s shelves. ‘Ruin or Worse’ is Capdown for 2016, it has the core conventions but with fresh new elements where skacore has never gone before.
