Flatliners, The

***Being a band for 20 years won’t just change you. It changes how you see the world, and your place in it. For long-running Toronto punk mainstays THE FLATLINERS, a new record meant a new opportunity to examine the legacy they’ve inherited, and the one they’ll eventually pass on. New Ruin is a shot of adrenaline from a band striking out at outdated institutions and ideologies via pointed lyrics and their heaviest songs to date, attacking each with a ferocity that will surprise even longtime fans. From the monstrously discordant hits that open the album through the de facto thesis statement of “Heirloom,” it’s clear that The Flatliners are angry in a way we’ve never heard before. At the same time, they’ve never been more in control. Produced by CRESSWELL along with the rest of the band, songs like "Performative Hours” and “Recoil” boil with livewire post-hardcore energy while “Souvenir” and “Big Strum” offer a more tightly coiled aggression that hints at the band’s anthemic punk past. Recorded at Toronto’s Noble Street Studios and Genesis Sound with longtime friend and engineer MATT SNELL, the album sounds both open and immediate, the cumulative effect of two decades performing together.