On their new EP, Now or Later brings difficult emotions to a space that shifts between melody and noise. Pop punk, emo rock, and hardcore all have a place here, but sheer volume doesn’t hold these songs together. Beneath the distortion are stories of a past that refuses to stay buried, words that leave wounds, alienation in a crowded room, and the distance between who we were and who we have become.
“Không” — What Remains After Anger?
In “Không,” the drums, guitars, and screamed vocals press in from every side. Its title means “No,” and the arrangement gives that one-word refusal the weight of everything held back for too long. You feel the anger before you need to know exactly where it is directed.
The shift at the end makes the song linger. After the heavier passages, a piano figure, fragile as a music box, remains in the space they occupied. The screaming does not neatly resolve the anger. Once it stops, exhaustion finally has room to be heard.
“Chỉ là lời nói” — More Than Just Words
“Chỉ là lời nói” begins with a more restrained guitar part before building toward a heavier bridge. That movement suggests someone trying to remain composed while the words they have heard keep growing louder in their head.
The title roughly translates to “Just Words,” a phrase that can make harm sound smaller than it is. The music pushes against that idea. A sentence may pass quickly for the person who says it and stay with the person who receives it for years. Now or Later leaves that distance unresolved, letting doubt and hurt share the same song.
“Alien (Take Me Away)” — A Stranger in a Crowded Room
“Alien (Take Me Away)” places Now or Later’s emo rock sound alongside a rapid-fire rap passage. The lines crowd together, as though thoughts arrive faster than they can be put in order. Ded Stark’s appearance adds another voice to the song’s sense of displacement.
Its alien does not need another planet. That feeling can take hold in a room full of people, when you measure every response and shape yourself into someone easier to accept. The song’s explosive moments make the desire to escape that performance feel immediate.
“Cinema Tháng 8” — Youth Meets the Present
“Cinema Tháng 8” draws on the excitement of youth through its pop-punk melody, but it doesn’t leave the memory untouched. A turn toward hardcore interrupts the warmth of recollection, bringing the past into sharp contact with the present.
The song finds its weight in the gap between what we remember and what we know now. We may recall exactly what we hoped for at eighteen, yet we cannot go back and change what followed. “Cinema Tháng 8” holds tenderness and bitterness together, refusing to make nostalgia too comfortable a place to hide.
“Skeleton in the Sea” — What Refuses to Stay Buried
“Skeleton in the Sea” runs on pop-punk and alternative-rock energy, with urgent drums, thick, distorted guitars, and a melody that cuts through the rush. A spoken-word passage gives the song room to breathe. For a moment, the skeleton beneath the water comes into focus: something believed to be long gone, still visible whenever we look down.
When the music surges again, release and uncertainty arrive together. The song reaches toward leaving old remains behind, while acknowledging that letting go takes more than a single decision.
The Edges That Remain
Across these five songs, Now or Later use changes in intensity to bring emotion closer. The heaviest passages give anger and anxiety a physical shape; the quieter ones reveal what is left when that energy recedes. The friction between memorable melodies and harder sounds gives the EP much of its character.
These stories do not arrive at tidy answers. The past can resurface, a few words can still hurt, and a person can feel out of place even among friends. Now or Later lets those feelings remain rough around the edges. The EP is most convincing when the band allows a wound to speak without pretending it has already healed.
Rating: 8.5/10
