Toronto, CA · punk · melodic punk · punk rock

The Flatliners

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Toronto punks who grew out of ska into gravel-throated, big-hearted melodic punk. A modern Fest cornerstone with a knack for the last-song-of-the-night singalong.

The Flatliners formed in Richmond Hill, Ontario, in 2002, in the same period as the wider Toronto ska-punk movement. Their debut album, Destroy to Create, was self-released in 2005 before being reissued by Stomp Records, and it caught the band still leaning on horns and upstroke rhythms.

What followed was a steady move toward faster, heavier melodic punk. Chris Cresswell's hoarse delivery became the band's centre, with songs built around choruses meant to be shouted back rather than sung quietly, a shift that took hold as the horns faded from the arrangements.

The Flatliners signed to Fat Wreck Chords in 2007, which distributed their records everywhere outside Canada, where Stomp Records kept handling releases. Their second album, The Great Awake, arrived that same year and pushed the tempo and volume further beyond the band's early sound.

Records since then have gradually widened in scope. Cavalcade, released in 2010, took in slower tempos and more considered arrangements without losing the urgency of the earlier material, and drew some of the strongest reviews of the band's career.

The Flatliners remain a fixture of the Canadian punk scene and a regular presence on North American and European tours, carrying the same shout-along instinct from small Ontario clubs into rooms across two continents.

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punkmelodic punkpunk rock