Words by Lisa Maclean
OUT NOW
I recently had the privilege of experiencing Frankenbok’s new EP, The Arriba War Honkle, and it lands like a delightful, genre-blending punch to the face. The eclectic combination of sounds and styles shouldn’t work, but somehow it absolutely does.
The constant oscillation between seeming opposites—playful and serious, simple and complex, controlled and unpredictable—kept me fully activated for the entire 29-minute runtime. This EP feels like a masterfully curated world where anything goes, and chaos becomes a form of intentional play.
I found myself letting go, pulled across ever-shifting terrain—from crushing death metal weight to tribal-esque percussion—never quite knowing what was coming next, but trusting the ride anyway. Memorable riffs are generously scattered across the sonic landscape, grounding this changing terrain while complementing the versatile and boundary-pushing vocals.
Hutch doesn’t just perform, he inhabits. Moving through a spectrum of emotional and psychological states, he delivers moments that genuinely elicit full-body chills. At one point, the line “I’m sick, sick, sick but I’ll never be your casualty” cuts through with a kind of defiant clarity that lingers in the mind like a mantra.
Lyrically, the EP refuses to stay in one lane. It moves from a no-fucks-given cautionary tale to an empowering anthem, to something almost universally relatable in its depiction of the daily grind. The words aren’t just well-crafted; they invite deeper consideration and reward it.
You might find yourself laughing, gasping, grooving, reflecting, relating, and then hitting repeat without thinking twice. And loving every minute of it.
Get your copy from https://frankenbok.net/shop
