Aversions

Photo Credit 📷 : @scoughman

When the first wave of post-punk bands hit the airwaves it was an innovative style and a deviation from the formulaic song writing of standardized punk rock giving it a very distinctive sound. Long gone are the days that any post-punk band has excited me personally but the Canadian band Aversions are breathing a new life into the genre with their artsy-post-punk sound that has grit and DIY ethos alongside a big sound with enough potential to rock large venues full of fans.

In August of 2025 Aversions released their first full length album “Empty Century,” breathing a new life into a stale genre with a freshly bristled sound that juxtaposes their added touch of gristle while still showcasing a sophisticatedly palatable and radio friendly sound that’s leaden with deep bassline grooves and snappy drum-work. Aversions comfortably paced alt-rock can be danced to, or swayed to at times, but they never let you know their next move on this album. Switching up from aggressive rhythms and commanding vocal sing along choruses in one moment to leisurely jaunting guitar work and vocal crooning on the next riff, a sophisticated blend that is sure to win over music fans like myself who may not normally dabble in this style.

Aversions are influenced by Killing Joke, The Damned, Eagulls and Kontravoid, and while I can’t say this band has reinvented the wheel, they do sing about how the wheel turns on their song “The Cockroach,” and I will say the style this is the type of punk that best pairs with craft beer as opposed to the usual PBR. Musically it feels like a higher quality craft than the dull and overdone post punk sound of the 80s, I welcome the oil change of my over saturated machine. Lots of this album was constructed above a mechanic shop so I’m trying to think of a way to squeeze in another terrible automobile pun here..

“We made up our own label for this release, which is something we’ve been thinking about for a while. It’s called 24HRXR, which is pronounced ‘24-Hour Collision Records,’ because we used to rehearse above a body shop. We don’t rehearse there anymore because some developer bought the building to turn it into condos. That’s a pretty common story in Vancouver, which is kind of funny, because condos are becoming very unpopular and no one wants to live in them or buy them. Should have left it a body shop.”

The trio have a lot to say about our current state of decline in our 21st century but in regards to the album as a whole their main apprehensions are with our collapsing civilization and technological de-advancements..

“IF IT’S ABOUT ANY ONE THING, THIS RECORD IS ABOUT THE END-STAGE SUBLIMATION OF TECHNOLOGY INTO HUMAN INTELLECTUAL AND CREATIVE OUTPUT. NOW THAT WE HAVE AN INTERFACE TO OFFLOAD MOST OF OUR CREATIVITY OR PERSONALITY, AND NOW THAT THE AVERAGE SLOB SEEMS EAGER TO ADOPT IT, THE JIG IS UP.”

- SAM COLL, @AVERSIONSBAND

“It’s easy to blame Large Language Models for this, but we see it as really just the latest piece in a forever war between good taste and the dross that emotionally void people make and consume.”

“These songs were recorded fairly conventionally, albeit in a few phases,” guitarist and main vocalist Sam Coll tells us of their recording process. “We tracked bass and drums with scratch guitar live off the floor, playing together. [I] then recorded keeper guitars as well as vocals later in two separate sessions. There were three recording sessions altogether, each about two days in length. The instruments were tracked at Rain City in Vancouver by Mariessa McLeod, and the vocals were tracked at Park Sound in North Vancouver by Dan Ponich”

The songs were mixed at The Noise Floor on Gabriola Island, by Jordan Koop, who Aversions have collaborated with on all their recordings to date. “Jordan is one of our favourite people and a good friend, which is lucky because he’s also an incredibly hard working and talented mix engineer. The Noise Floor is a special place, mystical and in the woods, and we always cherish our time there and we attend the mixing sessions where at all possible.”

Catch Aversions live in Vancouver on October 10th with By a Thread, Supercrush and Filigree Silver God. Follow their label 24HRXR on Instagram, check the band out on their bandcamp linked below and cop a vinyl if you can, they look as stunning as they sound.

Aversions is Sam Coll on vocals and guitar, Chad Devlin on bass & vocals, and Joe Ross on drums.

Follow them on bandcamp here : Aversions

Writer : @just_reidz

Editor : @garevthistle

10/07/25

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