By now, Toronto’s punk scene has no shortage of loud bands, but Shiv and the Carvers stand out because they know how to turn chaos into something personal. Their 2025 EP Tell Me You Love Me Again takes the band’s already explosive roller-skate punk energy and pushes it into sharper emotional territory, mixing hooks, frustration, vulnerability, and pure adrenaline into one of the more memorable punk releases from last year.
Written by
Nate Kline
in
Sonic Journeys
Music
Shiv and the Carvers Burn Through Tell Me You Love Me Again
Loud, messy, honest
What makes the EP hit so hard is how naturally it balances catharsis and fun. “Danger Girl” explodes with the kind of sugar-rush energy that practically demands movement, while “Bully” transforms personal fallout into something confrontational and strangely triumphant. Even when the lyrics turn bitter or self-reflective, the band never loses momentum.
The standout for me is “Meltdown,” which slowly builds tension before collapsing into a genuinely explosive ending. You can hear how much more collaborative the band has become too. The songs twist and expand in ways that feel less rigid than their earlier material, giving the EP a bigger emotional range without sanding down its rough edges.
That chemistry matters. Shiv Scott, Nicole Maxwell, Annie Jane Marie, and Mike Wiznuk sound completely locked in here, feeding off each other’s energy instead of fighting for space.
More than scene hype
A year later, Tell Me You Love Me Again still feels alive in a way a lot of punk records don’t. Maybe that’s because Shiv and the Carvers never sound overly polished or built for algorithms. Even when the themes get heavier — obsession, heartbreak, identity, self-destruction — the songs still move with the same reckless energy that made people pay attention to them in the first place.
At its best, this EP feels like a band figuring itself out in real time and dragging the audience along for the ride.
Header photo by Julie Riemersma.
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