Bit late with this one, but never mind. Brunt Of It are a throwback to the mid-to-late 90s from Rhode Island and combine elements of skate-punk with strong doses of ska. Think Bad Religion meets Suicide Machines and perhaps a hint of Buzzkill (minus the vocals).
‘Daddy’s little boy’ is a great song. Upbeat, driving and deceptively simple. It’s followed by ‘Subversive terrorist’ which keeps the high tempo, minimises the muted upstrokes and utilises vocals which wouldn’t be out of place on a King Prawn CD. 2 out of 3 so far, and it’s going fairly well.
Unfortunately, things then take a turn for the worse. The lead guitar seems to plagiarise itself as it goes along and once or twice I almost had to double check I hadn’t just listened to the same track twice by accident. By the time you get to track 6 ‘Apology’ it’s already come full circle and exploited every possible angle on the mini guitar solo which is usually quickly expunged by a bouncy vocal line that is very “Oi! Oi!” in its style.
To be fair, the odd later track does bring them back up to the standard of tracks 2 & 3. ‘Something to lose’ being another decent effort. Unfortunately, there’s far too much filler on here to make any kind of impact. You can look at 14 tracks across 41 minutes being value for money – or you could cut the chaff and have a nicer EP. Had this been released four years ago you’d have listened to this whenever you wanted a more punk rock version of Babar Luck and company. As it is, whilst there are five solid tracks here, there are quite a few which feel a little cumbersome and give the whole release a rather dated feel.
www.myspace.com/bruntofit
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