|
 HEROES FOR HIRE – Take One For The Team
(High Fidelity/Shock)
Who Goes There?: Five Sydneysiders who I bet could pull some mean synchronised punk jumps.
How Goes It?: Heroes For Hire’s sophomore release, Take One For The Team, is probably slicker than most American pop-punk releases to have surfaced this year and takes their already infectious style and gives it an upgrade by adding some true mainstream pop modules into their already formidable punk-rock mainframe. The only complaint is that at first listen, the now heroin-strength hooks and choruses overshadow the technical and songwriting prowess of the instrumental members of the group. However, after a few more listens, these come to the fore in a favourable fashion. Classic? Probably not, but fun? Hells yeah!
Sounds Like: New Found Glory / The Ataris / All Time Low
***½
 BALANCE AND COMPOSURE – Separation
(No Sleep)
Who Goes There?: This quintet seems to be part of the Pennsylvanian push for recognition of a new emo-hybrid.
How Goes It?: Ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to preset to you the latest hyphenated subgenre: alt-emo. Separation takes the awesomeness of mid-90s emo, adds a liberal dose of tone and tempo straight from Seattle of the same era and finishes it off with some spacey indie sensibilities. Like a heaving steed pulling its rider across a swift river, Balance And Composure drag the listener through a heavy shroud of muted harmonies and drowned-out riffage, leaving them spent and heavy-lidded but ultimately safe and content on the other side. Definitely different, definitely cool, definitely get it now.
Sounds Like: Brand New / Death By Stereo / Tigers Jaw
****
 POUR HABIT – Got Your Back
(Fat Wreck Chords/Shock)
Who Goes There?: Pour Habit are probably the only punk band that can claim to be straight outta Compton, California.
How Goes It?: In what is perhaps an ongoing salute to ’90s punk-rock, Got Your Back is filled cover to cover with double-kick drumming, technical guitar riffage, fist-pumping choruses and a few obligatory dashes of reggae to boot. What should be noted is that Pour Habit make this Fat Wreck Chords checklist of attractive attributes sound damn good and manage to deliver the whole package with variety and skill. All without sounding derivative. Checkmate.
Sounds Like: NOFX / The Offspring / Wilhelm Scream
***
 BARN BURNER – Bangers II: Scum Of The Earth
(Metal Blade)
Who Goes There?: This Montreal quartet have one mission and one mission only. Rock.
How Goes It?; Almost single-handedly rewriting the rock & roll cookbook after its shameless bastardisation by the likes of Airbourne and to some extent Wolfmother, Barn Burner are bringing back the riff in the most honest fashion possible and through their faultless and frenetic execution are guaranteed to win a swathe of new fans young and old. Seriously, dads will love this shit as much as the stoner skater kid down the road. Deep.
Sounds Like: Priestess / Black Sabbath / Thin Lizzy
****
 MEMPHIS MAY FIRE – The Hollow
(Rise Records/ Shock)
Who Goes There?: Texan post-hard-metal-whatever-corers return for a bout with the media machine with album number two.
How Goes It?: Dropping the southern influence on this release, which was possibly their only partially interesting aspect, Memphis May Fire are on their way towards complete and utter metalcore obscurity. Sure the breakdowns are pachyderm heavy, the clean vocals as shimmery as a rainforest waterfall, the growling like gravel and the surrounding lead-riffs soaring, but this has all been done before and done better. If the definition of madness is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, can someone please lock 99 per cent of the bands in this genre away?
Sounds Like: August Burns Red / Of Mice & Men / Asking Alexandria
*
PATRICK PERRIER
|
| Comments are submitted for possible publication on the condition that they may be edited. Poster's IP addresses are logged. |
|
Be first to comment on this article
