It has been ten years since Neighborhood Brats first entered my life via a review package from Razorcake. Since then, I have witnessed them evolve in real time, refining their sound and vision with each release. I have seen them live on several occasions, booked shows for them, and consider them friends. Taking that all into consideration, I am still blown away by how next level Confines of Life truly is. I knew it was going to be amazing, but damn! Expanding on the themes and sounds of their last full length album Claw Marks, Jenny and George are just as comfortable writing beautiful pop-tinged melodies as they are writing Killed By Death-style hardcore punk. The real trick here is that they stitch it all together seamlessly in a way that is uniquely theirs. Rhythm section Mike and Nick make their recorded debut with the band here and as expected, totally lock it in. Topically, the record is hitting on all cylinders. Our world truly is burning (and/or rotting from the inside out) and on track after track Jenny spells it out for us deftly. Her ability to impart the genuine sadness of these situations without sacrificing an ounce of seething rage is something to behold. She is easily one of my favorite lead singers ever, and this record just proves why again. I also need to point out that writing an instrumental surf song called “All Nazis Must Die” is just *chef’s kiss*. Punk rock is still relevant and necessary in 2021 and this record proves it. –Ty Stranglehold (Dirt Cult, dirtcultrecords.com / Taken By Surprise, takenbysurprise.net)