Rule one of sending in a demo – always send in the tracklisting. It makes it so much easier to distinguish the songs that way. Like duh. OnOff failed to do that, making it difficult to associate names with the 12-track album they sent in for review. The band is Irish and, according to the press release they did send, would appear to be doing quite well for themselves. Rather crudely they sound like Billy talent covering The Living End songs, which is quite an appetising mix and in all fairness ‘The Last Laugh‘ is a half decent stab at melodic pop-punk with an edge. Of course it’s nothing that a lot of bands haven’t done before, in particular the American ones, and with such a polished (and pretty US-influenced sound), it makes me wonder if OnOff have what it takes to get off the Emerald Isle.
The 12 songs here are all fairly decent. As I said, the production is pretty good, the drums solid and the riffs switch from lead to rhythm to keep things interesting. The vocals are very akin to those from Billy Talent, so fans of them should check OnOff out. It’s difficult to say which tracks are the better ones without a tracklisting, but songs 3 and 10 are pretty good. But there’s an x-factor missing here, and without wanting to come across all Simon Cowell, if they were in a competition, they probably don’t have enough to make it to the grand final.
www.onoff.tk
Kidnapped Records
Paul