Scottish act Cold Years reflects on their youth and the city they come from. The granite city, Aberdeen, isn’t the most glamorous or the most sonically infused. The band state this in their lyrical forays, and they’re glad they’ve moved away from the mundanity, the boredom, and the grittiness. Their fresh album Goodbye To Misery, is a compendium about this yearning, and overbearing sadness, and a craving to get out, to venture beyond four walls.

The music is fresh, riff infused and carries the weight of these powerful lyrics perfectly well. The thing that strikes emphatically is that this band knows how to write about their feelings without hyperbolic leanings. They also play with urgency and a frenzied pace, breaking the mould when doing so. They’re not superstars, and don’t claim to be, and they don’t adhere to pretension, which shows they’re genuinely tuned to the music.

Goodbye To Misery becomes and stays masterful. The lyrics are poetic, fierce, and striking. When they come together, lined up, sung out loud, they enforce moments when losing your mind is the only way to make sense of this world. The world has become a crippled animal, losing its vital signs, and this kind of music is a charged message.

The album starts with 32. It opens calmly and howls until the guitar riff breaks through the atmospheric tension. The riff superbly wakes the world up, and the lyrics describe aching potential not being met. Britain Is Dead is a punk song, threaded with guitar riffs and monumental words. It’s fearless. Jane starts in subtle measures. The track conveys dread and drunken dirges, and the chorus courageously pulls everything together. Wasting Away chronicles days that have been dealt hopelessness, and decay forces ruin. This is Cold Years at their powerful best. Big, bold, instrumentals carry it to the top.

Cold Years look for better days. The band is extremely talented and intelligent, creating songs which describe home as a dark place. The grit is real, but the music enlightens.

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