Review: Stick To Your Guns Sows Seeds of Posi-Rage with Keep Planting Flowers
As a household name in the realm of metallic hardcore, Stick To Your Guns has maintained a balance between gateway band and hometown heroes. Their relatively accessible sound puts them in a position to be the first exposure to angrier music for the Pennywise or Rise Against crowd, but they’ve done it while repping Orange County hardcore with no apologies. Yes, singalong choruses will always send purists into fits, but there’s a reason you’ll find these guys uniting lifers and newcomers alike to this day. In the case of Keep Planting Flowers, Stick To Your Guns is doing what a veteran hardcore band should — focusing on their roots for the sole purpose of catharsis. What this album lacks in innovation it makes up for in genuine emotional outbursts.
As it fades in with the sound of a shovel hitting the dirt, the title track provides a surprisingly impactful opening statement in under a minute and a half. With melodious chords building swiftly to a classic west-coast mosh riff, it’s clear that this edition of Stick To You Guns is all killer, no filler. With that said, “Spineless” comes through with the perfect blend of music for Tik-Tok baddies and straight-edge basement fight clubs. Jesse Barnett’s singing sounds just as raw as his screaming, bringing cohesion and emotional impact to the instrumentation as it adds sprinkles of festival-friendly anthemic vibes on the customary two-steps and breakdowns.
Not getting caught up in pretentious helps Stick To Your Guns live up to their name without sounding uninspired, the stints of ethereal singing in “Permanent Dark” don’t come off like an attempt to change the game so much as a tasteful way to switch up the dynamics between stomping bounce riffs and skronky syncopations. In the same way, sampling a quote from Indian philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti at the end feels natural as these songs grapple with existential dread and mental health with that life-bringing energy at the core of the posi-core scene. It also helps to have Andrew Rose (bass), guitarists Chris Rawson and Josh James to write for the song instead of the riffs. Yes, “Invisible Rain” has everything you’d expect from this genre, but its balance of tightness and ferocity makes it a great fit for any fan of this strain of metalcore and melodic hardcore.
With a call out like “When our time comes/ We will make no excuses/ Your turn to feel the pressure,” “Severed Forever” shows that Stick To Your Guns hasn’t forgotten how to use breakdowns to inspire positive, albeit aggressive, decisions. The song’s more punkish vibe comes via Adam Galindo’s drumming, as he shows more self-control than most in not using double-kick when he doesn’t have to. Small decisions like this separate these songs in an album experience, considering that the following track “More Than A Witness” comes galloping out of the gate with thrashing energy and cinematic half-time (no breakdown even… a brave choice in this scene).
Speaking of cinematic, the way Barnett’s heartfelt screams cut through the gloomy chords of “Keep Planting Flowers” would make many Mid-West emo bands blush — “I wish I knew you were in pain/ Because if it’s all the same you were always invincible to me” — which makes its explosive crescendo all the more intense. Interestingly, this slower song features no singing at all, upending any pretense of radio balladry. It’s certainly more engaging than the “woah”-style chorus of “Eats Me Up.” This isn’t to say the latter track doesn’t hit when it counts (the breakdown has some tasty rhythmic interplay), but it doesn’t exactly justify having the longest run-time on the album.
It’s poetic to end the album with a one-two punch of quality guest appearances. The 55-second assault “Who Needs Who” features Scott Vogel of LA Hardcore legends Terror, while closing track “H84U” is graced by Connie Sgarbossa of San Diego staples SeeYouSpaceCowboy. It shows that Stick To Your Guns has the respect of the old guard and the new breed. Both tracks come through with the album’s heaviest moments, with the gnarliest riffage and most devastating breakdowns. It makes sense for Terror to mesh well here, but it’s quite awesome to hear Sgarbossa’s snarling rage take over the album’s final moments with so much bestial grace.
True to their name, Stick To Your Guns know who they are and why they do what they do. But that’s what makes a record like this hit in 2025. There’s something to be said for a bonafide band playing the style of music they’ve helped disseminate far beyond Chain Reaction and The Glass House. These guys became household names for a reason, and they had a reason to Keep Planting Flowers with an eighth album.
Stick To Your Guns’ Keep Planting Flowers drops January 10th on SharpTone Records.
