Halifax are another band who made an impact on several members of the Punktastic forum community, so following recommendations I downloaded a couple of MP3s and was most impressed. I followed the downloads up with the purchase of this album, released on ECA Records, and I continue to be impressed. If a band got together that contained members of The Starting Line and Taking Back Sunday, they’d probably sound like Halifax. I know that sounds like a terrible concoction to some, but this is a good album, which although does borrow from its peers at times, it still has enough quality to make an impact.
You can almost smell the mesh caps when ‘Start Back At Start’ kicks off, so be warned before you even press play because this is a record that fits firmly under the ’emo/post-hardcore’ hat, yet when you disregard the lazy journalism you uncover a record that’s actually quite good. The opening salvo of ‘Our Last Dance’ and ‘Name Your Price’ are arguably as good as anything on TBS’ ‘Tell All Your Friends’, even if the vocals aren’t quite as distinctive. The riffs are polished and well executed and the use of the dual vocals comes off well. But what separates Halifax from the multitude of bands that play a similar type of music is that they’re not afraid to venture from the sound they’ve mastered. For example, ‘Here I Am’ is blatantly a pop-punk song in the style of TSL with a bouncy guitar riff – and any song that mentions ‘San Dimas’ gets the thumbs up from me.
‘Finished In A Day’ has a finger-picked acoustic intro which works well alongside the dual vocals, while ‘Shootout (You’ll Never Come Back)’ reverts back to the style which Halifax tend to stick to the most. ‘It’s Late, I’m Up’ is possibly the best track on the album, remaining melodic enough to sing along, yet doesn’t stick to the boring, predictable path many bands seem to opt for. Of course there are a few bad points; the lyrics are horribly generic at times and the subject matter is hardly the most inspiring, but on the whole Halifax‘s ability to master a riff and make things interesting pulls them through. ‘Start Back At Start’ certainly won’t appeal to those who are fed up with the TBS-lite bands that litter the radio, but there’e snough on show here to suggest Halifax will probably last longer than most. Ironing out the lyrical issues and perhaps developing their own sound a little more will help them to build on these solid foundations.
This isn’t the most original record you will hear but it has a charm and appeal that stands out from the other bands in the genre. The songs have huge hooks, the guitars clatter and the drums thud and there’s more than enough to have you singing along. Sure there are some cliched moments, but this is a fun record that is well worth checking out.
www.halifaxrock.com
ECA Records
Paul