Caustic and vicious, 'YPLL' picks up where the band's debut album 'Ugly Animals' left off, tightening up and becoming even more aggressive in the process. For those experiencing Retox for the first time with 'YPLL', it serves as a harsh, predatory introduction to the band. Either way, it's a brilliant, extremely unique record that demands your attention.

 With 'LP2', Restorations have made an album that firmly positions them as being an important voice in contemporary punk rock. Their ability to take from such a wide scope of influence and combine them in a way that feels wholly ambitious and impressively unique secures LP2's an early place in this writer's favourite records of 2013.

'Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor' certainly captures glipmses of the classic Rob Zombie at the start of his/their career. It's an entertaining album filled with rock and roll and metal vibes that also incorporate a dance/electronic feel, which allow for the album to be extremely catchy. All you want to do is sing along. Zombie has managed to create something very unique and memorable. 

With 'The Beauty Between', the four-piece maintain their DIY aesthetic musically as well as the catchy choruses, hooks and melodies the band are also known for, but in a way that feels refined, with a level of professionalism and experimentation that sees RVIVR put out their most accomplished release yet.

Real Friends still have a fair way to go and some room to improve as a band as a whole. Having said this, being unsigned and fairly new to pop punk, time is on their side and if we wait a little bit, they are likely to follow a path similar to that of The Wonder Years after the release of The Upsides. Their Acoustic Songs EP is proof of their ability to write music that is not only relatable but also leaves you with the feeling of having made a friend.

With 'Turn the Curse', Relentless firmly hold onto their title as one of Sydney's premier hardcore outfits. Crushing, fierce and heavy, the album is a brilliant display of a band with no signs of slowing down anytime soon. 

Running Gun Sound are another group trapped in the wrong era of music but perform it very well. The minute these guys try to become too serious or slick, their appeal will be lost, so for now they are on to a good thing.

'Sovereignty' is deliberate and well-formed. At its core, the album finds a sound that will appeal to most fans of heavy music. While typical in passages, the overall delivery just seems to replace any poor thoughts. This should get an extended play on most speakers.

Whether you are a fan of Rolo Tomassi or not the enjoyment level for this release will be the same, as it not only offers up some great tracks that you may not know about and some cool alternate versions of ones you do, but it presents the songs in such away that you could consider this the group’s new album, just with a butt load of material on it.

After listening to this record, it won’t feel like there has been such a gap between the two releases. Rather than being some sort of reunion for the sake of cash flow, ‘Pedals’ is the next logical step for the band after ‘United By Fate,’ and shows that these guys can still make great music, the type that influences and inspires others.