Punk. Pandemix’s Pathological Culture Demo is exactly that and there is no denying it. “Second Opinion,” the first track of the five song demo, begins with a drumbeat that is more fitting as a rallying cry set to start a revolution than it is an intro. With lyrics like fuck their response to violence; citizen cops (“Total Immersion”), perhaps a revolution is on the agenda for Pandemix after all.

Musically, Pathological Culture Demo is punk to the core. It is fast. It is loud. It is straightforward. The vocals are fueled with anger aimed at the culture we live in, and the blaring guitar demands that this anger be recognized. “Never Believed” is a list of grievances in the form of enraged spoken word, while “Conceptual Fuck” closes the demo with criticism of the way commercialism controls the way we think about ourselves. The takeaway? You’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t / And you’re gonna buy it either way.

There’s no doubt that the demo is politically-charged, as any good punk album is. Often enthusiasts of the genre complain about how there isn’t a band angry enough anymore to make genuinely inspired punk music, but Pandemix seem to have been sent on a quest by the rock gods to prove those skeptics wrong. Their music stirs up a sort of anxious excitement to question our society that hasn’t been felt by the punk community for quite some time. It echoes the general displeasure and furious nature of punk’s past (and by no means is it uninspired!)

Despite the influence stemming from punk’s roots, Pandemix are quite new themselves. You can catch them at one of their first shows on July 30!