Release Date June 5th, 2026
Format 2LP
Genre Hardcore/Art/Experimental Punk
Origin Canada
Fucked Up formed in Toronto in 2001 and built a long, strange road out of hardcore punk, concept releases, extended formats, and a discography that refuses the usual straight line. Damian Abraham remains the raw vocal anchor, with Mike Haliechuk, Josh Zucker, Sandy Miranda, and Jonah Falco forming the core behind him. Across twenty-five years, Fucked Up moved from blown-out punk roots into longer, stranger, more layered writing, with the Zodiac releases becoming a separate beast in their catalogue. “Year Of The Monkey” sits inside that path, the second chapter of the “Grass Can Move Stones Trilogy”, following “Year Of The Goat” and leading toward “Year Of The Rooster”.
“Year Of The Monkey” is built on four long sides, “Looking For Heaven And Not Finding It”, “Before Us Tigers Stood”, “Monkey Meets The Dragon”, and “Empty Is The Hand”. The album uses the Journey To The West-inspired tale of Monkey and Good Goat as its frame, with gods, beasts, travel, danger, and self-searching folded into Fucked Up’s own history as a restless punk band. The guest voices give the album a theatrical edge without turning it into a guest-list parade. John Brannon, Walter Schreifels, Keith Morris, Jake Bannon, Dan Bejar, Carson Mchone, Annie-Claude Deschênes, and others appear as characters.
The production has size, dirt, color, and patience. Guitars stretch out in waves, the rhythm section locks the long forms in place, and Abraham’s voice scrapes across the whole construction like rusted steel. At this length, some passages ask for more commitment than casual listening allows, and a few sections circle their point longer than needed. Still, the album has ambition with blood in it. It is strange, loud, overgrown, and very much Fucked Up. Not every turn kills, not every guest moment cuts deep, and the scale can test the nerves. The payoff is a bold punk record with myth, noise, melody, and sweat packed into one oversized animal.
|8.0
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