There’s something fitting about Rocketsuit Rogue starting their debut album with a song called Watch The World Just Fall Apart; full of end-of-the-world imagery, “Hello, Apocalypse!” isn’t really an album about giving up, and instead, it takes all that chaos and turns it into big, ridiculously catchy punk-rock songs about hanging on when everything around you feels like it’s collapsing.
That aforementioned take makes this album feel especially personal knowing where frontman Matty Lewis has been. After 15 years fronting Zebrahead, he stepped away in 2021 and eventually found himself writing again a few years later, and you can hear that rediscovery throughout the record. Songs like “Our Last Parade,” “Home Sweet Home (Sweet Misery)” and “The Best Last Day on Earth” borrow the scale and drama of old sci-fi and apocalypse movies, but underneath the explosions are much more familiar feelings: loneliness, uncertainty, wanting somewhere to belong and trying to find enough optimism to keep moving. Producer Cameron Webb gives those emotions plenty of room to get loud, with huge guitars and choruses that feel designed to be shouted back from a packed room.
“This album is incredibly special to me,” Matty says. “I spent a lot of time alone, rebooting and recharging this side of myself, and it all came out in the songs [and] it took a lot of focus, hard work, and rediscovering a part of myself that I didn’t realize how much I’d missed. Reading people’s reactions and hearing that they’ve missed my voice, truly means the world to me. After taking an off-ramp for a couple of years, it’s like I’ve found my way home again, and feels so good to be back.”
Ironically, the apocalypse is really just the scenery, as the heart of these songs is Matty finding his way back to a part of himself he thought he’d left behind, and there’s something genuinely uplifting about hearing someone turn that experience into music this energetic, as “Hello, Apocalypse!” might imagine the world ending around you, but its message is much simpler: while you’re still here, turn the guitars up, find your people and keep going.
