Drain - ...Is Your Friend Review

…Is Your Friend is Drain‘s third album, picking up from where their 2023 beast Living Proof left off. The band does a great job of playing metal and punk at the same time, so much so that you have a hard time deciphering what exactly they are.

Opener “Stealing Happiness From Tomorrow” is a righteous jam that blasts the listener with shouted vocals and supreme guitar work, allowing for the near party atmosphere to be felt on record. “Living In A Memory” is directly heavy, not skipping a beat before the band initiates a stomp and then flies right back in your face. I wouldn’t be surprised if fans of Turnstile turn this one up!

For those lucky enough to see the band live, this album really conveys a ton of that energy. “Scared of Everything and Nothing” runs the gamut of emotions, much like a well timed boogie board stage dive and subsequent pool noodle to the face. “Nothing But Love” is more than an ethos it is a call to action between thrashing riffs and a devilish divebomb. Frontman Sammy Ciaramitaro is the field general that many hardcore bands lack and Drain keep the energy high throughout the album’s 28-minute run time.

“Loudest In The Room” is perhaps the most accurately named song on the entire album; you won’t forget this band once you have seen them take the stage. The song has tons of dynamics at play from the riffs and pinch harmonics to Ciaramitaro’s vocals and the intermittent bass riffs, just an absolute blast of a song. “Who’s Having Fun” is more than a song named after common stage banter, it is the most different sounding song on the album, feeling a lot like their cover of “Good Good Things” from their previous album at least until the end where the Drain sound comes in full bore.

There is still ample energy left in the tank for this Santa Cruz syndicate. Drain have continued to sonically home in on what makes them such a formidable force on stage and the result of all of that is this very album. …Is Your Friend is a glorified live album and one of the best punk centric releases of the year.

(released November 7, 2025 on Epitaph Records)