This week’s Band of the Week is a three-piece punk band from Salt Lake City, Utah, built around something that has lasted far longer than any single song, record, or era. Pirates of the Promised Land formed in 2021, bringing together three musicians with different histories but a shared love for melodic punk, pop-punk, and the music that raised them. Five years later, they are still writing, recording, touring, and finding new reasons to keep performing and showing what happens when the music you grew up with grows up alongside you.

The answer is in the question and begins with the way Pirates of the Promised Land first came together. Bassist and co-lead vocalist Captain Steve “McFilthy” Hartwick and guitarist and co-lead vocalist Chris “Sharky” Dammert happened to play separate acts at the same show in 2021. Hartwick had been looking for a new group built around two distinct singer-songwriters, with contrasting voices and a strong dual-vocal dynamic. After seeing Dammert perform, he knew he had found the right person. Drummer and songwriter First Mate Ana “Phylaxis” Williams soon completed the trio, giving the band the three voices and musical perspectives it needed. Their chemistry became part of the sound itself, with dueling vocals, melodic transitions, and Ana’s powerful drums completing the dynamic they had set out to create.

Their earliest releases paved the way, with standalone singles such as “They Left a Long Time Ago” and “Our Haunted Home” eventually leading to their debut EP, Porthole Privateers, in 2024. The music is energetic and melodic, but underneath are lyrics about misspent youth, relationships, heavy drinking, heartbreak, and the uncomfortable process of understanding yourself as life changes. Even then, the band was looking forward and backward at the same time, taking the sound that defined their youth and giving it a place in their lives now.

As the members grew older, that tension became even more central to the music. Their songwriting began confronting the existential anxiety that comes with getting older while remaining connected to the punk culture they grew up with. The result was Aging Disgracefully, their sophomore EP released in July 2026, with a packed launch party at the Ice Haus Bar in Utah. Produced, mixed, and engineered by Wes Johnson at Archive Recordings, the record doesn’t try to hide from age or nostalgia. Instead, it makes room for both. Tracks like “Highlight” deliberately reaches back to the early 2000s emo that influenced them, while “March of the Pirates” turns inward, confronting mental health and the inner demons that can follow us through different stages of life.

One of the clearest examples of that connection between past and present is “The Captain.” Steve originally wrote the song for a previous band years ago but instead of leaving it in the past, Pirates of the Promised Land brought it back and completely reworked it together. The song became something different without losing where it came from. They are not just recreating the music of their youth or trying to return to another era. They are carrying those influences into the people and musicians they have become.

Each member brings another piece of that evolution. Steve’s songwriting and bass work help anchor the band’s melodic punk foundation, while Chris brings his own creative voice to the band using his platform to advocate for mental health, including through “March of the Pirates” and the band’s visual work. Ana contributes more than driving drums. She has full songwriting credit across the band’s catalog, making the trio a genuinely collaborative project from the ground up.

The band has also kept its connection to punk firmly in the present. They have built a regional circuit across Utah, California, Nevada, Colorado, and Idaho, playing rooms like Kilby Court, Velour Live Music Gallery, The Olympic Venue, The Shrine Club, Bobby V’s Cocktails, Red Dwarf, and the Punk Rock Museum’s 3 Star Bar in Las Vegas. They have created split 7-inch vinyl releases with touring partners the band Chuck, worked with regional musicians like CJ Coop of Racist Kramer, and continued building their live presence through festivals like the 4th Corner Punk Fest, Simpul Fest 4, and independent shows. At the same time, premieres from New Noise Magazine for “Collapse” and Punk Rock Theory for Aging Disgracefully placed the band in front of new audiences just as their new music was beginning to take hold.

There is something relatable about a band whose newest record looks directly at getting older while the people making it continue moving forward. Pirates of the Promised Land are not trying to preserve the version of punk they grew up with. They are letting it change with them, carrying old influences into new songs, new stages, new collaborations, and new territories without leaving the heart of the music behind. Punk isn’t something you age out of. It stays with you, changes with you, and becomes part of the person you are still becoming. For Pirates of the Promised Land, that makes them — a band worth featuring — and always worth watching.