Scowl - Are We All Angels

Scowl is a band that sounds exactly like their name implies: venomous, fierce, antagonistic — a sneer not to be crossed. Over the last five years, the Santa Cruz, California band has planted their flag in the hardcore scene with a vicious sound and ripping live show, sharing stages with Circle Jerks, Touché Amoré, and Limp Bizkit, and landing slots at Coachella, Sick New World, and Reading and Leeds.

With their new album, Are We All Angels (Dead Oceans), Scowl aims to funnel all that aggression through a more expansive version of themselves. Much of the record grapples with their place in the hardcore community, which has embraced and criticized them in equal measure. “Not Hell, Not Heaven” rejects outside narratives. “It’s about feeling victimized and being a victim, but not wanting to identify with being a victim,” says vocalist Kat Moss. “‘I live in my reality. You have to deal with whatever you're dealing with, and it ain’t working for me.’”

On “Fantasy,” Moss explores disconnection: “It’s incredibly challenging to balance my love for the scene while also feeling, in some spaces, extremely alienated and hated.” The album ends with the philosophical “Are We All Angels,” asking, “Is this all there is?” — its open-ended punctuation leaving the meaning up to the listener.

The follow-up to 2021’s How Flowers Grow (and 2023’s Psychic Dance Routine EP), Are We All Angels was shaped with producer Will Yip, who helped restructure songs to highlight their hooks without losing intensity. “Some songs he tore apart,” says Moss. Still, the band’s punk ethos remains intact. “Hardcore and punk have sculpted how we operate,” says guitarist Malachi Greene. “At our core, we are a punk and a hardcore band, regardless of how the song shifts and changes.”