Young Orlando hardcore band Watts release thrilling new album 'Retribution'

With searing heat and velocity, young Orlando hardcore band Watts have been one of the most meteoric forces to rise in the area over the past year. Their following is sizable, rabid and snowballing. With only a couple of singles to their name so far, that red-hot street cred is built almost entirely on their live shows, which are volcanic affairs that incite some of the most extreme pits around. Now get ready, punks, because Watts just dropped their first ever collection and it lands like a grenade.

With the brand-new six-song Retribution EP, Watts — the quartet of vocalist Brielle Bennett, bassist Chrissy McKeever, drummer Dakotah Walker and guitarist Nickolai Rushka — are notching a lot of firsts. It’s the band’s debut suite and features some of the very first songs they wrote. It also marks the first project that Walker recorded and mixed.

To Walker’s credit, the record takes an approach that eschews arty indulgence for a directness that’s unvarnished and head-on. By keeping the sound clean in a way that’s more naked than polished, Watts’ brutality hits with full force and legibility. While dirtier, their first two singles (2023’s “Hard Hitter” and “Choke”) aren’t as visceral as anything here. Retribution doesn’t just rip hard, it does it with swashbuckling brinkmanship. It’s a riot of nasty guitars, bludgeoning beats and feral vocals.

Without question, the Retribution EP is Watts’ most chiseled look to date. With pure muscle and unhinged mania, it packs all the requisite toughness to feed the hardcore need but roars with an intensity that’s refreshingly free of the male edge that’s so institutional to the genre. It’s an exhilarating snapshot of a band who are a beacon of punk’s future and whose time is now.

Retribution now streams everywhere and atop TLU's Spotify playlist, but no recording can ever capture the physical insanity of a Watts show. So this week at Will’s Pub, go get the full experience when Montgomery Drive and The Coop present Watts’ release show, also featuring Baltimore’s Gasket and Jacksonville’s Flask. ( 8 p.m. Monday, July 8, $15 ).



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