Crannk Reviews-Tomorrows New Format Self-Titled Debut -

Western Sydney four-piece Tomorrow’s New Format have released their debut self-titled album this week and it’s solid as fuck. Comprised of some familiar names and faces to the Sydney metal circuit, local legend Aaron Cliff of Hazmat on Bass and former OG Horrorwood Mannequin Maggot on guitar, they tagged their style as “Alternative Punk” which definitely fits but I found they had a definite early phase MetalCore vibe running through the album.

Opener Home starts off with a slow intro and some jangly drums and guitar then kicks into a high energy, catchy as fuck power punk with a heavy/clean vocal back and forth.

Not Getting Out Alive and Runaway follow a similar style and gave off strong Murderdolls/early Wednesday 13 vibes with high energy, pounding drum lines that stay catchy and toe-tapping while filling a lot of space in the songs. Not Getting Out Alive in particular is a super catchy earworm with hard-to-resist Whoa-Oh-Oh’s that are just about mandated by law in a power/pop punk song.

The fourth track Anxiety hits pretty hard by comparison with more harsh vocals than previous tracks and closes out with a classic Chugg-Chugg from the bass and drums while the guitar riffs over the top that gets your head nodding.

Dead Rising is a banger of a song where the guitars, drums, and bass are locked in tight and has a vocal line that’s just as catchy during the verse as it is during the chorus but then has a heavy stab and clench break after a couple of minutes where the guitar riffs while the drums and bass lock in on some super tight triplets.

Closer Dancing In The Dark is straight-up old-school punk. The verse and chorus were fast-paced and a little frantic and the vocals stay big and loud and kept the energy high.

With 11 songs across 33 minutes, the album doesn’t wear out its welcome and while there definitely aren’t any filler tracks, there aren’t a lot of variances either. That isn’t inherently a bad thing at all, but I did find a couple of songs around the middle blended together a little. Having said that, I think that a good album should leave you done with that particular style, if you finish listening to an album by The Berzerker and think to yourself “I need to hear more blast-beats” then the album hasn’t really done its job and by the end of Tomorrows New Formats debut, I was satisfied and happy with what I’d heard and ready to move onto something else cos my power punk itch had definitely been scratched for the day.

Overall a great album with awesome production, catchy-as-hell songs, and great performances from all four members, in particular, the drums and vocals managed to keep the energy and noise levels big and loud the whole time without wearing out or becoming stale, great stuff and a good sign for the future of this band. 7/10