East Vancouver’s Die Job don’t just play punk rock: they twist it into something volatile, theatrical, and strangely celebratory. Their new EP Hazards of Occupation (out now on Kinda Cool Records) is a five-song riot of bratty hooks, biting satire, and a searing electric viola that refuses to stay in the background. Produced, mixed, and mastered by Shafer Carson, the record sounds both raw and razor-precise, capturing a band that thrives on chaos but knows exactly what it’s doing.

The EP wastes no time in turning grief, rage, and frustration into cathartic anthems. Die Job’s gift is in weaponizing wit without dulling the blade: every sarcastic jab is paired with a melody big enough to shout in unison. Closing track and highlight “The One Where Cyrus Has Friends” carries the sneer of vintage Green Day, but rides on harder, faster rhythms, its chorus landing like a burst of sunlight, uplifting even as it looks back on loss and vanished youth. Elsewhere, the viola weaves jagged counter-melodies around basslines that pulse with menace, drums that hammer with unrelenting urgency, and guitars that buzz like they’re running on fumes.

Hazards of Occupation is protest music by way of punk-rock cabaret. It is rowdy, funny, and furious all at once, best exemplified in incendiary tracks like "Thin Blue Whine". Die Job rage against power while inviting everyone in the room to belt along, turning bitterness into collective release. Their sound is grimy but grand, sardonic but sincere, feral but hook-driven. It’s punk rock with teeth, sharpened on frustration but wielded with a grin.

With Cyrus Lord (vocals, guitar), Jessie Rockley (viola, vocals), Jesse Death (bass, vocals), and Violet Becker (drums), Die Job have carved out their own unruly corner of melodic punk. Hazards of Occupation proves their approach works: angry songs that punch hard, burn bright, and somehow feel triumphant in the end.