Symbolic

Southern California's Voodoo Glow Skulls were skanking well before the major success of their fellow counterparts No Doubt, the Dance Hall Crashers, and Goldfinger, yet the band remains at the top of their game when delivering their own hearty side of vivacious rawk in the third wave of the ska revival. Returning with their fifth studio release Symbolic, the Voodoo Glow Skulls are as wry and humorously cynical as they ever were, and the gnarl remains the same.

Being signed to Epitaph also allows the band to fully disregard corporate rock & roll norms and go head on with their raw ska-punk hybrid. Symbolic does however offer a little twist in direction. The Voodoos slow things down a little, especially on tracks such as the murky "The Devil Made Me Do It." The creative change is brief, but perhaps a little hard to digest for the die-hard punkers who grab at punk's throbbing excitement. However, the band does keep it real with their typical revved jauntiness on "Silencer" and "Last Party," complete with jogging thrash. The Voodoo Glow Skulls are confident enough to let things fly where they fly, and brash enough to identify with the honesty and truth backing the original threads of first wave ska-punk.