Grade 2 really deliver for their self-titled sophomore album. Ten years on, the eponymous Grade 2 is their magnum opus. Catch them on tour now in the UK, hitting the US for Punk Rock Bowling in Las Vegas in May, then with Rancid and the Bronx in June in Europe.
Fifty years after the genre turned the music world upside-down, Grade 2 bring the raw power of old school punk to a new generation. Their second release on Tim Armstrong’s legendary Hellcat Records is a thumping 15 track tour de force melding the uncompromising ethos of punk with the howl of contemporary injustice, personal identity and frustrations of Gen Z youth, authentically told by three lads with punk coursing through their veins.
Formed on their native Isle of Wight when they were just 14 years old, Jack Chatfield (guitar and vocals), Jacob Hull (drums) and Sid Ryan (bass and vocals) honed their craft covering punk pioneers before creating a sound uniquely theirs.
The new album was produced by the band along with Tim Timebomb (Armstrong) and T.J. Rivers at Armstrong’s Ship Rec Studio in Los Angeles. “Returning to Ship Rec Studio resparked that magic dynamic” says guitarist Jack Chatfield. “When we’re in there I feel like we reach our full potential. Tim would offer tweaks and tips for some songs, while others he’d compliment as finished first time we played them.”