Pinkshift – Earthkeeper

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It’s easy to see why Pinkshift were so happy for their sophomore LP, Earthkeeper, to see the light of day. This record is brimming with hopeful messages, and is paired with an ambitious and dynamic take on what punk music is and can sound like today. An “Earthkeeper” is “a reflection of universal consciousness and a protector of existence,” and the spacey artwork showcases the band’s lofty ambitions on taking their music to the next level. While their Hopeless Records’ debut, that was called Love Me Forever, was a raucous punk rock romp of a good time, Earthkeeper is a direct reaction to the world around this young three-piece band that has a lot on their minds. Singles like the abrasive “Anita Ride” and the punk rock energy found on “Evil Eye” are wisely stacked back to back in the early-going of the album sequencing, while vocalist Ashrita Kumar finds lightning in a bottle in her dynamic vocal performance. Earthkeeper is absolutely packed with heavy political themes, while still remaining true and authentic the band’s core values and spiritual beliefs that there is a bigger power at play.

On the opener of “Love It Here”, Kumar wastes little time getting to the state of the world as she sing/shouts, “Fuck your guns and fuck your violence / While we all bleed and you stay silent / End the war, turn off your stations / They feed us lies, it’s on rotation / You believe in what you want to / But what you see will always haunt you.” It’s something that needs to be said, even if we may have heard it before. The point being that the more voices that join up with Pinkshift’s ideology, more weight and additional people can join into the fray to fight the status quo going on in this country. The guitar performance from Paul Vallejo remains utterly powerful and urgent, while drummer Myron Houngbedji has no trouble keeping up with the frenetic energy of his two bandmates.

”Anita Ride” was one of the first singles to be released from Earthkeeper, and it’s filled with messages of Kumar’s core beliefs. She sings about her faith with, “My solitude is the temple, I come to pray / Close my eyes and let it wash away / That feeling that there’s not enough / You’re all I hear, become divine / If you never want you’ll always have / Reincarnated, here I am / Everywhere and in everything / I feel alive,” with the last lyric being delivered with a visceral growl. “Evil Eye” offers some great punk rock energy as drummer Myron Houngbedji has plenty of standout moments behind the kit, while the down-tuned guitars from Vallejo offer a great landscape for Kumar to sing her confident vocals behind.

The most recent single of “Don’t Fight” is another great reaction to the world we’re living in today, as Paul Vallejo takes the lead vocals reins in the verses, while Kumar screams the chorus of, “I won’t forgive and I won’t forget / Don’t be afraid is all I have left / How do you reconcile grief / When all it does it take and take again / Everything inside of me has been rotting ever since you left / And I don’t feel anything at all, I don’t feel anything.” The song has a Deftones feel to it, and it rocks. “Patience” is exact opposite of the previous track, as the band takes a moment to gather their collective breaths from the material that has preceded it, with a rich mid-tempo rocker. I found the bridge of, “Heads in the clouds these days, I dream in hues / Been trying to find what I’m looking for,” to be well thought out and delivered crisply.

”Spiritseeker” jumps off of the marker that “Patience” presented by once again slowly down the tempo just enough to build to a massive chorus. The brooding chorus of, “And I’ll wait for your sign / You’ll find me alive / You’ll open up my eyes / You’ll find me,” has more of a 90’s Alt Rock vibe to it, while the song continues to showcase that Pinkshift are unafraid of taking their music in unexpected directions. “Blood” features a near-rapped chorus of, “There’s blood in the water / There’s blood in the trees / They’re stealing what they can until we’re dripping with disease / Let me feel the earth, breathe in the leaves / Let me feel the ocean, let her claim what she sees,” as Kumar explains the urgency behind her words. As Ashrita mentioned in the press release, ““I think with this record, I’m trying to inspire you to, give a fuck. You’re worth giving a fuck about. I feel like people don’t give a fuck about themselves but In the same way those redwood trees told me I’m welcome here, you matter and you belong here.”

”Freefall” gets back to the frenetic energy from the beginning with an MCR-inspired guitar riff from Paul Vallejo, while the machine gun drumming of Myron Houngbedji remains top notch. “Suspended” follows in the sequencing with a reflective tone, and Kumar cautiously allows the song to breathe a bit before carefully crooning, “Ooh, tell me to reach for the stars / And heaven will reach down to me, so graciously / For every memory / All I’ve wanted to see is you / When you’ve forgotten me, and my skin is so thin / That all I could ever want is everything / Within the earth, it is spoken to me / Constantly in whispers of the wind,” as she connects her connection to the Earth with great poise. “Reflection” features a great guitar tone throughout, and the song itself is a true barometer of what Pinkshift are capable of crafting when they stay true to their core beliefs and in tune with each other as musicians as well.

”Vacant” offers another chance for change in a mosh pit ready anthem, while the album closer of “Something More” offers a strong, matter of fact message of taking action of our own future. Ashrita confidently closes with, “To believe you were made for something more / I believe I was made for something more,” to demand that we do better, be better, and rally to take back what’s right in this world. We only have one chance at life, and Pinkshift doesn’t want us to waste a single second. Earthkeeper reminds us of this fact in more ways than one, and puts the band’s most confident feet forward as great leaders in the punk rock community.

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