This album came out two decades ago. Here’s what I had to say about it back then (with some minor editing):
You expect punk bands to settle down and sell out when they get older — to pull a Green Day or an Offspring and go for the big-label deal, the mega-buck video, the acoustic-ballad single. What you don’t expect them to do is fire their agent, voluntarily leave their small indie label for an even smaller, more indie label, and generally try to return to DIY days of their youth. But that is pretty much what Sweden’s Satanic Surfers have done of late. And it looks like the change has done ’em good.
Fragments and Fractions, their seventh release (and second this year!) finds the foursome reinvigorated, dishing out turbo-charged pop-punk riffs, double-time rhythms and nostalgic romanticism like they were going out of style on these 13 cuts. “When was the last time the music moved you?” asks drumming vocalist Rodrigo Alfaro. “The last time you were swept off your feet to the rhythm of a beat?” Well, um, just now, actually.
