Noise punk band Bongloard's new album "DYTYR?" is out now

Noise punk band Bongloard releases their second album 'DYTYR?' (Do You Think You're Ready) today. It’s a record full of tension, where excitement and adrenaline clash with despair and stress—the familiar 'fight or flight' feeling. On this energetic collection of noise-punk and alt-rock tracks, Jannes van Kaam, Ties Bogers, and Jan van Asch are determined to struggle their way out of a tough situation, but not without challenges. The album is out today via V2 Records.

While their debut album People Overreacting To My Behaviour sometimes sounded suffocating and introspective, DYTYR? has become a powerful and surrendering record. This is Bongloard as we know them: a band that turns every situation into a party and turns every stage upside down. Their joy and energy often stem from less cheerful emotions, but this time they refuse to be defeated by them. Bongloard unhesitatingly gives the finger to all obstacles. With *Do You Think You’re Ready?*, the band offers a way out of paralyzing doubts and fears, paving a path to the best version of yourself.

On the lead single “The Mirror,” Van Kaam awakens from a crazy period where he struggled with a negative self-image. “At one point, I thought I had become some kind of monster. This led to a search for myself that I perhaps should have started earlier. It was quite scary and super confronting. You start asking yourself, ‘When am I ready?’” Popular fiction turned out to be a solution for this existential crisis—in the case of “The Mirror,” after watching the films Mulholland Drive and White Noise, specific experiences in which Van Kaam could reflect his own feelings.

The album showcases a band that, after an extensive creative and personal journey, is finally in a good place. The prickly “Downwards”—driven by fierce blast beats—stands out with its theme and composition, focusing on embracing your quirks and what makes a person unique compared to others. On “My Anxiety,” Van Kaam wears his fears like a crown and finds his way back to self-acceptance: “When I finally have learned / I can break this mental system / I can let these feelings go / Throw away all it has written.”

On the ultra-catchy moshpit starter “Having The Best Time,” Bongloard responds to the ubiquitous question ‘How are you?’ with a defiant fist in the air. “I had one of those days when I literally couldn’t get anything done. For the tax office, you have to count all your hours, and sometimes I forget that I’m a musician. That when I write songs, I’m also working. So I thought, ‘F*** it, I’m just going to make music.’ Then I came up with that riff and that hook: ‘I’m having the best time...’ I really didn’t feel that great at the time.” This is Bongloard in top form: a showdown between joy and venom, packed into a fiery cannonball of a song.

Do you think you’re ready? We’re never fully ready, but Bongloard provides an intense and loud manual for Rolling with the Punches on DYTYR?—and it works like a charm!