Inside Job/MNRK Music Group and Scottish working class punk band Cold Years are excited to announce the Friday, April 22 release of the band’s sophomore album, Goodbye To Misery, the ambitious follow-up to the band’s acclaimed debut, Paradise (2020). Recorded by Neil Kennedy (Creeper, Boston Manor, Milk Teeth) in May 2021 at The Ranch Studios in Southampton, Goodbye To Misery is 12 tracks born out of the want for a more positive future rather than the self-destruction and misery of its predecessor. “This record is us saying you can break away from those things that are bringing you down,” frontman Ross Gordon explains. “It’s about standing up for yourself and not letting anybody tell you what you should or shouldn’t be doing. It’s a defiant statement.”

Opening the album is “32,” Cold Years’ very own grand version of “Welcome to the Black Parade” that splices together My Chemical Romance, Green Day and Queen to create a theatrical punk rock anthem. “This is our ‘fuck this, let’s just get out of here’ track and the track that best channels the message of the album,” Gordon adds. "It’s about overcoming hardship and growing as a person — facing all of your fears and insecurities — and realising that you’re never alone in that. It’s over-the-top; it’s punk rock on steroids and we can’t wait to play it live.” The Nick Scholey (Fruit Salat Films)-directed video for “32” captures this spirit as it follows a couple in love running away to live the freest life possible.

Of the 12 new songs that make up the record, only three were written in Aberdeen as Gordon picked up and moved to Glasgow to escape the suffocating environment he’s called home for his entire life. The tracks came out in a flurry of big city inspiration while Gordon, like millions of others in the UK, found himself on furlough. Because yes, the shadow that looms large over this story is the same one that continues to color almost every aspect of all our daily lives. Forced, by lockdown, to share ideas with Craighead and Urquhart over email instead of letting things percolate in pubs over pints like they used to, the songs on Goodbye To Misery naturally shaped up in brand new ways. Infused with new energy and new feelings, the band decided to explore those impulses, stepping out of their collective comfort zones in the process. As Gordon says, “it’s a fucking punk rock record,” with a freewheeling spirit and fearless attitude to boot. 

If you’ve ever wondered if there’s something better out there, suspected that this can’t be all that there is, or felt that you deserve more in life, Goodbye To Misery is a record that will resonate hard. You can stay where you are and grind yourself into despair, or you can go out and get what you deserve. Because the world owes you no favors. There aren’t going to be any saviors rising from these streets. Blazing with fury, regret, addiction and defiance, Cold Years pull on all these threads with aplomb. They cover relationships and societal issues. It gets deeply personal yet offers a universal call to arms. Among all this newfound optimism and positivity, there’s also more legitimate rage and rebellion than you’ll find on most modern punk records. Rest assured, Cold Years are still firmly kicking against the pricks. If anything, they sound even more riled than ever. Understandable, given the many reasons to be.

“I couldn't give a fuck what’s going to happen to me when I'm 65,” Gordon says. “You need to live life in the moment. You need to take chances. And that was something I was always scared to do. But I'm not scared anymore.”