Failure By Design don’t sound like a band (possibly) named after a Brand New song. With a brass section and plenty of past-paced riffs, they’re almost skate-punk with horns rather than skacore. In their last review on PT, Ben stated he felt they had a promising future and could well make an impact on the UK scene, but I’m not so sure. I’m just not wholly convinced by this EP. It seems a bit busy and with so much going on it’s not as accessible as it could be. For example, things tend to get a bit fast and furious with guitars, drums and the brass merging into one big musical puddle.
Of the four songs here, each one has good elements. The vocals are powerful and the guitars switch from fast to slow to create some interesting tempos. But when you put the sum of all the parts together, it just comes across as a bit messy. ‘…I Still want Paying’ is possibly the bands best song, but it’s still not quite as good as it could be. FBD have a decent reputation within their own Manchester scene, but whether they can transfer this onto a wider scale remains to be seen. A good release, but I feel the band are playing within themselves and can still do better.