Call me old-fashioned, call me picky, hell, call me Barbara if you fancy paying £60 per hour for the privilege, but it’s difficult to assess a band’s potential from a 3-track demo that spans 5 minutes and 17 seconds.
That alone should give you a little insight into the style of Outbreaks, even if a real qualitative judgement is difficult to come by. Opener ‘Pouring Rain’ is a mix of old Anti-Flag meets any random 3 or 4-chord punk band you care to name from the last 20 years. It’s not extravagant, it’s not showy, it’s not going to win any awards, but it’s a fairly decent effort. Truth be told, if it had been any longer than its 116 seconds it would have outstayed its welcome. ‘Plight’ kicks in and, frankly, it’s very poor; vocals have shifted to a weird kind of Oi! and there’s no variation at all. Final instalment ‘Credit Card Culture’ is (thankfully) a return to the style of the first track but the bite isn’t quite there. The rhythm is similarly catchy but the lyrics are weaker: singing about keeping up your repayments just isn’t quite doing it for me.
Overall this is a very brief introduction which serves as a taster quite well. Definitely something to develop in the first song and to a lesser extent the third, but ditch that second one, guys.
www.outbreaks.co.uk
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