YOU AND WHAT ARMY look like mid-90s Faith No More and sound a bit like Enter Shikari. I only caught two songs but they look unlikely heroes; the singer has long hair that goes down to his waist and he looks like the geeky, stoner kid from school who everyone kinda secretly liked but didn’t really want to be associated with if they wanted to be popular. It’s an energetic and interesting, some may even say vibrant, performance and judging by the swarm of pre-teens desperate for a picture after the set, it struck a chord with the kids in the crowd too. The jaded journo in me has seen and heard this kind of thing a million times before and while it’s not bad, per se, it’s generic and fashionable, even if it’s dressed up as anti-fashion. They’ll probably sell bucketloads until the next trend comes
along, you watch.

At least they’re better than the abomination they call BOYS LIKE GIRLS. I’ll hold my hand up and admit ‘The Great Escape’ is a great pop song, but the set focuses almost solely on new tracks from their rather fruity new album. If you’ve not read my review of that yet, do so, because it will set the scene for 30 minutes of infuriatingly rubbish “entertainment” by a group of men in their mid-20s who sprinkled the ‘f’ word liberally like it was a competition of who could say it the most. Don’t get me wrong, I swear with the best of them. But when you say ‘Kids In Glass Houses‘ and use the ‘f’ word twice, and repeatedly do it, I’d say you begin to lose the effect. Throw in a singer who can’t sing, prances about on stage like the re-incarnation of Christ and a backing band of poseurs who literally do nothing but stand there/stand on a monitor and they’re just bland, annoying and quite frankly rubbish. If this is the state of 21st Century pop-punk thank God I’m leaving it behind.

A couple of pointers about KIDS IN GLASS HOUSES:

1) They now sound absolutely enormous
2) Their stage set looks great (nice velvet curtain)
3) Aled always seems to wear nice shoes on stage

Any regular PT reader will know I’m an avid KIGH fan and so I’ll try and review this, incidentally my last official PT engagement, objectively. I was gutted I thought I would miss the tour due to other commitments, so was delighted when the band hooked me up at very short notice. ‘Dirt’ is a fantastic album, a step up from ‘Smart Casual’ in every way, and their dedication and commitment to getting on the road has made them an act to be reckoned with in a live setting. Opening with ‘Sunshine‘ the first thing you notice is how massive the band sound and how at ease they are on stage.

I actually felt Aled’s vocals were a bit off, maybe a bit muddy in the mix, on that first track, but these are quickly ironed out. Kids are at their best when they put their foot to the floor and the likes of ‘Artbreaker’ and ‘Fisticuffs’ spark mini-pits and a very small wave of crowdsurfers. But it’s the on-stage energy that sets them apart from most UK bands – they’ve taken the performance level up several notches every time I’ve see them and they’re now on a par with the best of them, with the songs to match too. The singles are all present and correct, Aled gets the kids to sing along in various places and there’s a genuine love and interaction between band and fans. You watch Boys Like Girls talk to the fans with the usual fake American ‘this is the best night of the tour, Sheffield’ schtick that they trot out every night. But there’s a genuine warmth with Kids In Glass Houses like they actually, honestly mean it.

The band close with ‘Matters At All’ which sparks a mini riot before the kids rush out the door to undoubtedly meet their 11pm schoolnight curfew. As Aled sings the final lines I can’t help but be sucked in by their poignancy – as someone writing their final live review after 11 years the line ‘all these things that you live to leave behind’ and the ‘goodnight’ ending seem awfully apt. To end with an horrific KIGH related pun, the band are at the top of their game. But you get the feeling the best is yet to come…

‘They’re Only Chasing Safety’ is one of my guilty pleasures. It’s essentially the sound and genre of music that I’ve grown to despise; a type of music that’s so overly saturated and spawned about eighth or ninth generations of soundalikes that have diluted the passion and energy into a type of music that has literally sucked the life out of my belief in discovering new bands and listening to music. I listen to some of the new young bucks who grew up on ‘Chasing Safety’ and it’s blindingly obvious why Underoath have moved away from the sound that broke them into the Championship of bands in the ‘scene’. ‘Lost In The Sound…’ moved them away from the melodic, poppier side and introduced instrumental aspects and electronica that edged them towards Thrice and Deftones. ‘Ø (Disambiguation)’ goes even further, taking away most of the melodies and instead replacing them with atmospherics and interesting riffs that reference the likes of Radiohead (‘Driftwood’) than the millions of soundalikes they’ve inadvertently influenced.

And it’s Underoath‘s ability to push the envelope and move the boundaries of what everyone else in that type of music does that makes them shine like a lighthouse. Spencer’s vocals are as aggressive and brutal as ever in places, but it’s the band’s willingness to mix things up – ‘Driftwood’ into ‘A Divine Edradication’ is about as big a juxtaposition as you’ll find on any album this year – that makes them bloody essential. You can look at every single song and strip out lyrics or guitar riffs or drum beats that just makes this record stand out from almost everything else released this year. From the Thrice-esque ‘Paper Lung’ and the vocal delivery which has a little Chino Moreno about it, to the bone-crushingly awesome ‘Illuminator’, this record is special in so many different ways.

Underoath have moved out of the ‘guilty pleasure’ bracket and into the ‘bloody essential’ one. ‘Ø (Disambiguation)’ is arguably their finest, most consistent work yet.

PAUL: I understand that you’ve just finished tracking some drums in the studio. Is it right that you’re recording a new album? If so, do you have any names etc you can share with us?
RYAN: That’s right, we’re currently tracking the new record down in South Wales and we’re hoping to have that out by March/April next year. We’ve got a title, but we want to wait until we can share the artwork to reveal it so that it all ties in and makes sense. It’s very much a continuation of the themes and artwork of the ‘The Young and Defenceless’ EP.

PAUL: You’re recording with Romesh Dodangoda – why did you choose to work with Romesh?
RYAN: Besides the fact that Romesh gets some serious tones in the studio – working with Romesh is like having a spokesperson for our fans in the studio with us. He’s grown up with Funeral For a Friend and he knows what we do best and what our fans expect from us. I think for a while, we lost sight of what our strengths were and what made us tick and Romesh has definitely been instrumental in encouraging us to get back to doing what we do best and playing to our strengths.

PAUL: What has influenced you as a band in terms of these new songs – both bands/records and subject matter?
I think it differs from band member to band member. A lot of Matt’s lyrical themes are based around the state the world is in at the moment and the the general feeling of apathy in people that seem resigned to the fact that the bad things going on in the world are too far down the line for us to be able to change them. I suppose you could call it a ‘call to arms’ record, without sounding too cheesy. For myself personally, seeing Deftones’ resurgence has been a real inspiration for me. I was a huge fan of their first couple of records but found myself falling out of love with the band with each subsequent album that came out after that. It just felt I was losing connection with something I’d loved. We toured with the band in the States a few years ago and they were just an awful parody of the band I fell in love with – bloated, sloppy and demotivated, and they completely lost me from that point. It was at that point that I realised that that was how a lot of people felt about MY band, and it was quite sobering realisation. I knew we’d let things slip and I knew how our fans felt because I was in their position, feeling the same about one of MY favourite bands. Seeing them coming around again looking and sounding fit and fresh, and delivering (what I consider) their best album of the career so far down the line was a real inspiration to me, and I’ve taken that attitude into what we’re doing now with Funeral for a Friend. I truly believe at this point that the band is better than it’s ever been and that we’re writing the best music we’ve ever written. This album is us back on top of our game, giving our fans what they’ve been missing for a long time.

PAUL: How would you describe the new songs? The new EP is released this week and I’ve seen it described as ‘Between Order and Model for 2010’. Is that a fair description? Some people seem to be a little surprised at just how aggressive it is…
RYAN: I think new EP is similar to ‘Between Order and Model’ in that it shares the same honest approach. When ‘BOAM’ was written, there were no commercial aspirations for it or any real pressure because it was just intended to be a demo. It was just a band writing music they liked and wanted to record so they could listen back to it and enjoy it themselves. It really feels like we’re back at that point now with the new lineup, and there wasn’t so much pressure for us this time around as a lot of people have lowered their expectations of us over the years. I think people were surprised at the aggression, but I think a lot of people forget that this is a new band with a new impetus and fire. Having Gav and Rich bringing their level of enthusiasm to the fold has really pushed Matt, Kris and myself and that can only be a good thing for our fans. If the fans thought the EP was aggressive though, then the album is going to tear their faces off!

PAUL: Why did you choose to do an EP rather than straight into a new album?
RYAN: Probably the reason we did it with ‘BOAM’ – being that we wanted to hear what this band really sounded like with the 5 of us writing together before going for the album. The songs on the EP were the first 4 that we wrote together and it was something we needed to do to give us that sense of what works for us as the band we are now. We knew we had some bridges to build with fans too and we wanted to give them an insight into what they can expect from our next full length record. After seeing a lot of people’s reactions to the EP then it seems apparent that in general, people are a lot more excited and curious about our new album now that they maybe were a few months back.

PAUL: The reaction so far has been really positive – is it always a relief when fans are positive or do you not tend to worry about what people say whenever they hear new music?
RYAN: I can honestly say that this was the first time that I wasn’t concerned about what people were going to say because I knew how good the new songs were. We knew people would be into them, because we knew how into them WE were. I’ve always been unsure of what people might think of previous albums either because they’ve been so different to what we’ve done before or honestly just not as good as what we’d done before. We don’t have those feelings anymore. We know these tracks are great, but it feels especially good knowing that the songs we’ve got on the album to follow up the EP with are even better.

PAUL: How has the songwriting process changed since Darran announced he was leaving the band? Are there any songs you will record for the album that include parts Darran may have brought to the table? How has Richard changed the dynamic of the band in terms of writing?
RYAN: In the past, things were usually done in a way that we’d write the songs and Darran would then come in at the end and add his parts, some times even after Matt had done his vocals. If you go into our back catalogue you can really hear that it was done that way. That’s not a criticism – it was a really important part of our sound, as Darran was a very different type of guitar player to Kris – whereas now we have Gav, who is a very similar player to Kris. Rich has changed the dynamics not by just by being an amazing bassist, but by being a great guitarist as well with a much different style again to Kris or Gav. Even with the EP, each of the initial skeletons of those songs were written by a different member of the band – but when everyone puts their stamp on those songs they sound like Funeral songs and belong together. There’s a great chemistry there.

PAUL: You’ve always been a pretty prolific band with new releases on a constant 12-18 month basis. Some bands take considerably longer – what is it about FFAF that makes you such a slick songwriting machine? Have you ever been tempted to take some time away?
RYAN: I just think we’ve got a good work ethic, and also really enjoy writing. This band has pretty much been a non-stop machine since we started – between touring, writing and recording. We’ve never really had any time away, as such. By the time this album comes out, it’ll actually be there longest gap between records that we’ve ever had so I guess that counts as our “time away”!

PAUL: Who came up with the idea of recording and releasing the EP through Pledgemusic.com? There were some pretty cool offers and options available to fans – were you surprised at how quickly fans snapped up the offers and how quickly you managed to reach your target?
RYAN: I won’t lie – we were pretty sceptical at first. It was something that was untried and we felt like the Guinea Pigs to a certain extent. Putting yourself out there in such a way could really backfire if it doesn’t connect, and there was a real concern that we could end up with egg on our faces – which for Matt, being vegan, wouldn’t have been very nice. But yeah – seeing the target being reached on only the 2nd day was really amazing. Having that sort of support really made us want to reward those fans with as many studio videos/updates etc as we could and I like to think we’ve repaid their faith with this EP.

PAUL: One of the pledges was to sing gang vocals on one of the EP tracks – how did that work out? Was it a fun experience for everyone?
RYAN: It was great actually. Some of the people who Pledged couldn’t make it so are going to to their vocals on the album, but the guys who came down were great and really did a good job. The vocals were on ‘Damned If You Do, Dead If You Don’t’, so hopefully fans will take the opportunity to lend their vocals every night when we play the track live!

PAUL: Would you consider working on something like Pledge again? Would you recommend it to other bands?
RYAN: I think Pledge will become a popular tool for bands in the the future. There’ve already been a few who jumped on it lately and I think it’s great for the fans. We’re looking into doing it for the album – but this time we’ll probably look at Pledge being an option rather than the exclusive place to get the record. If fans want to be part of that again then cool. If not then they can just buy the record from the shops, online or through itunes.

PAUL: Which release do you feel pushed you into the limelight the most and which, if it’s different, was the most successful? Linked in to that, which release are you most proud of and why?
RYAN:Well, in terms pushing the band into the limelight, then ‘Casually Dressed..’ was definitely our breakthrough record – both in the UK and overseas. In terms of getting into the public conscience then probably ‘Tales..’ being a Top 3 record in the UK and having songs from it being played on Eastenders, Coronation Street, Hollyoaks etc haha. But then again ‘Streetcar’ (from ‘Hours’) got us on ‘Top of the Pops’ so it’s hard to say! At the moment – I’m most proud of ‘Tales Don’t Tell Themselves’, just because we were brave enough to take a risk and to do something that we knew we probably shouldn’t do, but needed to for our own artistic fulfilment at that point. I still love that record – I just wished we’d made a side project and released it in that way instead. A lot of fans never really ever accepted it as a FFAF record, where I think just as a record in it’s own right, it’s pretty solid.

PAUL: If it was to all end tomorrow, what would you say was the one defining moment you would remember forever?
RYAN: One thing that really stuck in my mind was when we headlined the 2nd stage at Reading/Leeds in 2004. We’d been out in the States for 2 1/2 months playing to about 30 people a day in a car park on the Projekt Revolution tour with Linkin Park, Korn and Snoop Dogg (who obviously played to more than 30 people) and we flew home especially to do Reading and Leeds before flying back out again. To come back to the kind of reception we got at those 2 shows was amazing. I remember playing ‘Roses for the Dead’ for the first time at those shows too and it going down amazingly well. The icing on the cake was being presented with gold discs for ‘Casually Dressed’ before the Reading set. It really was an amazing weekend. Then we flew back to play parking lots for another week! But yeah, good memories there. Meeting Ross Kemp was pretty rad too – what a gent.

PAUL: You have a very close relationship with your fans. How important is it to the band that you maintain that ‘special’ relationship? Most bands don’t seem to interact with their fans to the level that you do so why are you so different in that respect?
RYAN: I’d say it’s because we’re such huge music fans ourselves. I was the kid who always got to shows early to say hi to bands and have them sign my stuff, and to stay behind after the show to let them know how much I enjoyed it and maybe grab a photograph. I remember every band that treated me with respect and every band that acted like they were above all that, and I always wanted this band to be the former. It’s a cliche maybe, but we really wouldn’t be able to do what we do without our fans supporting us. It may be considered “cool” to some to not give a shit about what anyone else outside the band thinks, but we do. I care if a kid goes home from our show disappointed, and I love being able to talk with fans about our music and making them feel part of what this band is about.

PAUL: What will 2011 hold for Funeral for a Friend?
RYAN: 2011 will be all about the new album. It’s the first record from this new lineup, and the one that we hope will be the new benchmark release for us. We’ve lived off the back off our early success for too long now – this year is all about looking forward. It’s going to be a big year hopefully, especially since the world is apparently ending in 2012. If it doesn’t then we’ll make another album then as well. Perhaps we’ll make the last album EVER! That would be a nice way to go.

Hi, I’m Rob and I sing.

Who or what is a Don Broco and how did it inspire your choice of band name?

Well we get asked this quite a lot as you can imagine. In the past we’ve come up with one or two interesting and exotic full blown lies, as the true story is pretty boring to be honest! Basically, we had some songs written and gigs coming up, though still couldn’t find a band name that we all liked. We were stressing about it a bit as had a week left before our first show, when Simon (guitarist) got ruthlessly slide tackled during a game of 5-a-side and broke his wrist. We were all pretty gutted as we had to cancel the shows and put everything on hold until he was allowed to take his cast off. Now this is where it gets really lame…. one of the names we quite liked the sound of that our mate came up with, was ‘Don Loco’ though it was quickly dismissed, as on googling we discovered there was a German rapper already using it. On one very slow day at work we were writing on Simon’s cast and literally as just something to say, I piped up with ‘Don Bro-co’, as in his bro-ken wrist. Shit I know, but we decided to use it!

For those who have not heard of the band before, give us a very quick explanation of how you came to be a band? Which other bands are you influenced by?

We are all mates from school drawn together by a mutual love of bands like Biffy Clyro, New Found Glory, Brand New, Incubus, Glassjaw, and loads of other stuff.

You’re originally from Bedfordshire. What’s the local scene like? Has anything from home inspired you as musicians, lyricists or just general human beings?

Yes, and we all still live in and around Bedford. It used to be awesome. When we were growing up it really felt like there was some sort of a movement happening, we’d go and see bands like Sikth, Aconite Thrill, Fireapple Red etc who all came from nearby towns and the shows would always be busy. Things dried up a bit, but the scenes definitely getting back on its feet. There are some great local bands and promoters getting things going again. Well I wrote the lyrics to Thug Workout after witnessing a pretty brutal fight in a club in Bedford. There are plenty of chavs knocking about round here, and they’re pretty territorial about their females. It was an interesting night!

You release new single ‘Dreamboy’ very shortly. If you were a bunch of girls, who would be your dreamiest boy?

My hunk of the year award goes hands down to teen heartthrob and star of Gossip Girl, Ed Westwick. Pretty randomly, when we were about 13, he went to our school for 1 week. He sat next to me on the bus, tried to sell me weed, and was never seen again. Then about a year ago I found out he’s this huge celeb now in America! True story.

The poster for your October tour suggests you’re actually a stripping troupe. Are you secretly worried you’re going to turn up to shows and having drunk women on hen nights throwing their knickers at you and expecting you to strip off on stage for them? Seriously though, awesome concept for a poster. Who came up with it and why?

Think we’d quite enjoy that actually. It was in fact Luke’s (bassist) sister who helped us with that. In support of the single we decided to call the tour ‘Dreamboys On Tour’, and she pointed out to us that there are certain touring ‘Dreamboys’ who are basically an offshoot of the Chippendales! We found a photo of some, wacked our heads on, and hey presto sweet tour poster! You’d be surprised how many people don’t get it’s a joke though, girls thinking they’re our real bodies and loving it, and guys thinking we’re arrogant show offs!

Why did you decide to do a dance remix of ‘Dreamboy’? How’s the reaction been? Is it a one off or can we expect to get our rave on to more DB tunes in the future?

On tour, we were staying at our mate’s house in Cardiff after a show and he played us a remix he was working on for the Young Guns track ‘Weight Of The World’. They’re going to be using it for their upcoming single release and it sounds bloody brilliant! We asked him to have a pop at Dreamboy and that’s what he came back with! Check his stuff out at http://www.myspace.com/soundofeveryone People are absolutely loving it, and yeah we’re always keen on hearing different interpretations of our songs. Download it for free here – http://www.musicglue.com/donbroco

What’s the grand plan in terms of EP or album release? Do you have other new material scheduled? When can we hear more new tracks?

We’re going to be putting out our first proper E.P in February which we’re pretty excited about. We’ve now got all the material recorded, so the next single will be dropping early Feb.

How was this year’s Sonisphere festival? Dream come true to play such a well-known fest?

It was amazing, such an incredible weekend. We had a really fun show and got to hang out with a lot of cool bands we’d met on the road over the last year. Good times indeed! As well as all the big names it was really great to see a lot of the more ‘underground’ bands represented, such a decent line up. Also, Rammstein put on a free bar backstage! epic!

OK, ‘fess up. Who came up with the idea for the video for ‘Thug Workout’? Shit is genius! Surprised at how much of a cult classic it has become?

Me. All my idea! We have actually had one or two little arguments over this as it was done a year ago, and we can’t actually remember who came up with the initial concept! It was a proper team effort though and all happened pretty organically. We literally just looked around my house and cul de sac for inspiration, got our mate round to film it, then Simon edited it all together. Not really that surprised of its cult status, it’s amazing! Nah, its great people enjoy it, it always goes down well at shows.

What are your top five tips for a good thug workout?

This is more a step by step guide:
1.Get drunk
2. Hit the club
3. Talk to girl (preferably sexy)
4. See someone else talking to same girl
5. Start fight

Daddy or chips?

CHIPS! THICK ONES!

What’s the plan for the rest of 2010 going into 2011?

On Friday we set off on tour which will take us up until the end of October, and then we’ll start gearing up for the E.P release in February. We’ll be filming the video for the next single in November, and over Christmas will keep nice and busy writing some more new songs no doubt! We’ll be touring again in Feb to coincide with the release, really looking forward to playing these new tunes!

October tour dates :

8TH KINGS LYNN – KUDOS – FREE ENTRY!!!
9TH HEMEL HEMPSTEAD – GADEBRIDGE YOUTH CLUB
10TH BOURNEMOUTH – IBAR
11TH TRURO – WIG AND PEN
12TH READING – FACE BAR
14TH NORTHAMPTON – SOUNDHOUSE
15TH DARTFORD – AMAR HALL
16TH COLCHESTER – THE TWIST
18TH NEWCASTLE – PUMPHREYS BAR
19TH DUNFERMELINE – PJ MOLLOYS
20TH ABERDEEN – TUNNELS
21ST GLASGOW – CAPITOL
22ND EDINBURGH – GRV
24TH HULL – THE RINGSIDE
26TH LIVERPOOL – ACADEMY 2
27TH NOTTINGHAM – ROCK CITY
28TH MILTON KEYNES – CRAUFURD ARMS
29TH NORWICH – ARTS CENTRE
30TH LUTON – UBSU SUBCLUB
31ST LONDON – UNDERWORLD

It’s not going to win awards, the recording quality is fairly dire (deliberately rather than out of necessity, I’m sure) – all done live with a single mic, but some of the tracks really hit the spot. The title track is a charming little ditty – the end track ‘No Threat’ is a beautiful piece of acoustic riffery. SSOT doesn’t try to be something he’s not – it’s a proud look at middle-class preoccupations, rather than another tired protest on behalf of people an artist wants to assimilate to.

All in all it would take up 10 minutes of your time and remind you just how ‘nice’ music can be.

Mike

The great songs on ‘Dancing With A Ghost’ are genuinely great. ‘Losing Sleep‘ is one of the best tracks they’ve ever written with Shane’s vocal performance arguably the best he’s ever given. It’s brutally raw and heart-on-the-sleeve stuff and it’s a shame because it’s one of the only really passionate songs on the record. Even though I’ll openly admit to preferring this band when they’re faster and more aggressive, it’s a great song that builds up into this huge crescendo and chorus. The title track and lead single has a lovely little swagger which will have you singing along in no time, while ‘Friday Night’ kind of sounds a bit theatrical yet still works. It sounds a little like modern day Green Day actually.

The problem is the indifferent songs – they’re really not that great at all. There’s experimentation with instruments and sounds and the pace varies quite a bit. I don’t think the slower songs do the band justice and while some do work well (as mentioned above), others just tend to plod a bit. I’ve levelled this criticism before at bands like Cartel: bands that clearly are super talented and can write great songs, yet for some reason seem to persist on trying to re-write their own style and the search for something different means they put out so-so albums. ‘Dancing With A Ghost’ is spoiled by tracks like ‘Somewhere I Belong’ which has female dual vocals and some heavy use of orchestral instrumentation and electronica. It just doesn’t work, for me anyway.

Shane’s own solo project, Promise of Redemption, allowed him to use music to overcome personal tragedy and it was emotional, raw and powerful. This record seems to be the bridge between the Valencia of old and that solo record. ‘Dancing With A Ghost’ would almost be better as two separate EPs rather than one album. I think as an entire piece of work the record suffers from stop-start pace and that disrupts the flow. There are some very good songs here – arguably a couple of great tracks – but those are counter-balanced by others which totally miss the spot. It’s a new direction that will gain the band some fans and probably lose some too. Kudos for trying to do something different, but I just feel that search has led them into the same trap as many other bands before them.

Girl Afraid are described as an alt-rock band, but I’d say they’re more pop-rock. The band try and write catchy, melodic rock songs with strong choruses and they do a reasonable job. ‘The Many Moods of Larry David’ is the best of the remaining two tracks, with a strong – if heavily Americanised – vocal and a decent stab at a chorus. It’s not Earth-shattering or original, but it’s pretty good. Would I listen to Girl Afraid for fun? Probably not, but the band showcase enough talent and skill to suggest if they keep at it they could grow and get better and better. There’s always room for bands that write songs you can sing along to, so there’s no reason why Girl Afraid can’t do well in the future.

Outsmarted essentially plays melodic hardcore at the more accessible ‘easier-going’ end of the spectrum. The vocals are never really given that brutal push, and the musicianship nods towards old fashioned rock music as much as pummelling beatdowns. If anything, tracks like ‘Sex Degrees’ and ‘The Fall of Jack Mulligan’ hark back to the days of Atreyu peeking, and certainly not to some of the haircut bands in the scene.

‘The Amoral Ranger’ is loaded with energy, a trait that actually prevents the album from slowly sinking into a quagmire of mediocrity. Check the vigorous drumming on ‘The Doctor Is In’, or the aggressiveness of ‘Vampires’. There’s a sense of urgency oozing from every pore. Had the Linz outfit not put everything into this record there’s a big chance that this would have been easy to pass over. Instead, we’re offered a solid recording that has enough merit to warrant a spin or three, as well as documenting a band that seems on this evidence worth catching live, at least if the vigour on CD translates to your average gig dive.

By no means is this a truly essential album. It lacks in any really stand-out moment, and hints at a little monotony – as much a comment on the melodic hardcore genre as the release itself – but it’s well executed and impeccably constructed. And importantly, what it lacks in deviation, it makes up for in energy, a trait that marks Outsmarted out.

Alex