Punk coming from the mainstream can easily be looked down on as being too commercial compared to its underground counterpart, but at least it can be counted on to have musicians who know how to write a song, how to make the guitar do more the screech and vocalists who will actually try and make it possible for the listener to hear and understand the lyrics. Which Fox Named King understand all too well. And thanks to their German rock roots, these guys aren’t as watered down as the likes of, say, Green Day, and aren’t going to compromise their sound too much in the name of mass appeal.

“Kaufrausch” comes out working the guitar strings and while distorted, is smooth enough to go down as nice as good beer and has the same pleasant feeling. “Mitten ins Herz” runs about the track at a steady pace that is hypnotic in its own way. “Pirat” sounds a bit more worried as if it has something to hide but will do good things for a dancefloor. “Diese Stadt” shows the band’s German soul as things take a more serious tone and seems to get a touch existential. Rather impressive, as given the band’s image existentialism was one of the last things I was expecting.

“Augen auf!” is much more raw and angry, almost as if the existential angst has been rejected by the band in a temper, and this would round the EP off at an anticlimax were it not for the rather Green Day-ish “Reaktion” demo that feels more like a proper ending rather then simply an extra track stuck on the end.