In the early days of the pandemic, Ian Shelton, leader of the fast and feral hardcore band Regional Justice Center, started a new project called Militarie Gun. It was a solo thing at first, and then it became a band. Militarie Gun, like Regional Justice Center, exists within the bounds of hardcore, but the two bands are vastly different. With Militarie Gun, Shelton plays around with bouncy ’90s alt-rock textures, scraping ’90s noise-rock ugliness, and gigantic hooks. As the project has gone on, it’s found some weird and great middle ground between noisy hardcore and power-pop, two genres that should not be easy to fuse.

Militarie Gun released a two-song demo last April, and they followed it up with the debut EP My Life Is Over in November. Shelton only just came out with the Regional Justice Center album Crime And Punishment, and now he’s released one of two Militarie Gun EPs scheduled for this year. We already posted “Don’t Pick Up The Phone,” the lead single from the new All Roads Lead To The Gun EP, and now the whole record is out.

All Roads To The Gun has ideas just bursting out of it. At times, it reminds me of what past Shelton collaborator Justice Tripp has done with the last few Angel Du$t records. It’s not often that we get to hear acoustic guitars on hardcore songs, for instance, but the EP closer “Stuck In A Spin” deploys them beautifully. Below, stream All Roads Lead To The Gun and watch the video for opening track “Ain’t No Flowers.”

All Roads Lead To The Gun is out 6/4 on Alternatives Label. All Roads Lead To The Gun II is out 9/10.