Album Review: Frank Iero & The Future Violents - Barriers

Heavily distorted guitars and harsh vocals bring punk to the forefront in Frank Iero & The Future Violents’ new album Barriers. As a soulful organ coats opening track, A New Day’s Coming, it soon explodes into an anthemic chorus that is just the beginning of this violent record. 

Young And Doomed kicks it up a notch with its classic punk tonality and thrashing guitars, while Iero’s vocals are forceful and maniacal in Fever Dream. The frazzled melodies are overflowing with an aggressive energy that throws vivid images of '70s punk into our minds. There's a light touch every so often, with a trickle of piano and violin during The Unfortunate before Great Party gives us a dainty piano line hidden beneath a gut-wrenching wall of noise.

Medicine Square Garden throws a gloriously dense breakdown into our faces with crashing drums and tasty guitar riffs and Police Police turns the album darker with a haunting piano lingering in the background of its verses. As the album ends with the heartbreaking punk-style ballad 24k Lush (“I can’t let you down anymore than I have”), Iero’s voice quivers as the song crashes like a wave and fizzles out.