Santa Cruz hardcore greats Scowl have a new album, Are We All Angels, on the way, arriving April 4 via Dead Oceans. Produced by Will Yip, who also oversaw their 2023 Psychic Dance Routine EP, the LP sees the band embracing a new direction while forgoing none of their anger.
The album includes last year’s “Special” and was mixed by Rich Costey (My Chemical Romance, Fiona Apple, Foo Fighters). A press release notes that the record wraps around “alienation, grief, and the loss of control” as the band contemplate their place within the hardcore scene and the criticism they’ve received whenever they’re successful. The first single, “Not Hell, Not Heaven,” is a lot different than other Scowl songs, softening their approach but still carrying a punk mentality. “It’s about feeling victimized and being a victim, but not wanting to identify with being a victim,” frontwoman Kat Moss says. “It’s trying to find grace in the fact that I have my power. I live in my reality. You have to deal with whatever you’re dealing with, and it ain’t working for me.”
Read more: In conversation with Scowl and Frank Iero
Their latest comes with a video directed by Sean Stout and filmed at 924 Gilman in Berkeley. It’s a rich full-circle moment, as Moss, guitarist Malachi Greene, and drummer Cole Gilbert first met at the venue and formed Scowl a year later. “It didn’t take long for me to open up to Malachi and express my interest in playing in a band,” Moss told us in 2023. “I had zero expectations besides a few ‘bucket list’ goals.” One of those included playing at the historic space, which they accomplished that October.
See that video, plus their latest for “Not Hell, Not Heaven,” below.