By Kris Ketonen
Despite a seven-year gap between albums, one listen to Swedish punk band Millencolin’s newest offering True Brew shows they haven’t lost a step.True Brew, the band’s eighth full-length studio album, was released April 2015, the follow-up to 2008’s Machine 15.
And the album is a blast—a well-reviewed collection of 13 fast-paced, catchy, energetic, technical, and political punk songs built around a pretty noble and universal rallying cry: live the life you want and be true to yourself, even if that means going a bit against the grain.
Millencolin isn’t afraid to get political (this is punk, after all). Take the track “Sense and Sensibility,” which hones in on nationalism and racism in politics with lyrics like “You’re just a racist clown to me.”
What’s almost as impressive as the album is the fact that the four members of Millencolin have managed to stay together for 23 years. The original band—vocalist and bassist Nikola Šarčević, drummer Mathias Färm, and guitarist Erik Ohlsson—formed in 1992, releasing a demo titled Goofy the next year. Shortly after, Fredrik Larzon came on board as drummer, and Färm shifted to guitar. The lineup has remained intact ever since.
Millencolin spent much of the summer touring overseas—they’re opening September with shows over in Switzerland—but will be crossing the pond for a series of performances in Canada starting September 15. One of those shows will bring the band to Thunder Bay—Millencolin will take the stage at Crocks on September 20.
