FIFTY years after the genre turned the music world upside-down, Grade 2 bring the raw power of old school punk to a new generation at Exeter’s Cavern on March 9

Famed for blistering live performances and exceptional musicianship, the Isle of Wight-based band are currently on a UK  tour promoting their third studio album  eponymously titled ‘Grade 2’

Their second release on Tim Armstrong’s legendary Hellcat Records is a thumping 15 track tour de force melding the uncompromising ethos of punk with the howl of contemporary injustice, personal identity and frustrations of Gen-Z youth, authentically told by three lads with punk coursing through their veins.

Band members  Jack Chatfield (guitar and vocals), Jacob Hull (drums) and Sid Ryan (bass and vocals) honed their craft covering punk pioneers before creating a sound uniquely theirs,  and ten years on from their formation, the eponymous Grade 2 is their magnus opus. 

Said frontman Sid Ryan: ‘Like everyone else, 2020 left us proper hacked off. However,  we were able to channel every ounce of that despair into every second of this record.’

From the complex rhythms and brutal two-note guitar of opening track Judgement Day, the record grabs by the scruff of the neck and never lets up. 

With a commitment to the cause, lead single Doing Time is a thunderous hardcore punk track intertwined with mix of classic pop-punk and savage old-school grit numbers. The result is a bone-crunching 35-minutes that agitates, intoxicates and liberates in equal measure.

‘Returning to Ship Rec Studio resparked that magic dynamic,’ said  guitarist Jack Chatfield. ‘When we’re in there I feel like we reach our full potential. Tim would offer tweaks and tips for some songs, while others he’d compliment as finished first time we played them.’

‘We worked flat-out recording this record,’ added drummer Jacob Hull, “but we never felt pressured, Tim keeping us in the zone to make the best tunes of our lives.’

Tickets for the 7.30pm gig on Thursday, March 9, can be booked in advance from the website https://exetercavern.net.