I’ve got mixed feelings about this one. When I first heard “Mystery” by Turnstile, the first 30 seconds of it was so ethereal and trippy and just….weird for a rock song in my opinion. Like Moody Blues, Pink Floyd prog rock trippy. I was honestly very confused.

Then the groove changes and brings in some gritty guitars and makes my ears say “Okay, you got my attention, what’s next?” There’s a feeling of pop punk, a little grunge and some 80s synth going on.

The song is short, it’s catchy and I’m still confused by the band. As I was trying to research them and figure out who they are, where they’re from, etc., I find them to be a Mystery, just like the song title.

Turnstile hail from Baltimore, MD and have actually been around for over a decade. According to their social media and the World Wide Web, they are labeled as a hardcore band and this is why I’m confused because nothing about this song registers as “hardcore”.

For me as a punk rock kid and a hard core fan as an adult, this is not what I know as hardcore. Bands like Sick of it All, Cro-Mags, Hatebreed. Biohazard, Life of Agony.… that’s hardcore to me.

But if you look thru the history of this 5-piece outfit, going back to earlier songs and releases, they definitely do fall under that hardcore umbrella. I think with what I’m hearing of this newer material, the hardcore lines are blurring more into the pop punk side. And that’s ok, they still have an edge to them and I look forward to learning more about them.

In the meantime, check out “Mystery” and see what you think.