Dark Water Review

Walter Salles 2005 film ‘Dark Water’ is dark and mysterious, a truly chilling remake of Hideo Nakata’s Japanese horror film which was originally released in 2002. It’s an interesting concept that Walter Salles should take on a film of this sort, he’d previously had success with the film ‘The Motorcycle Diaries’ but ‘Dark Water’ is really something far different than this. What’s more is that this is a major American remake and yet Walter Salles himself is Brazilian. Although this was not a predictable film for Walter Salles to have taken on, what I will say is that he has done an excellent job here and successfully directed a brilliant horror film.

In the 2000s there has been quite a trend for remaking popular Japanese horror films. ‘The Ring’ films were remade, as too was the ‘Ju-on’ series, it’s only right then that ‘Dark Water’ also was given a remake in the English language. I personally don’t see either of the aforementioned films as particularly successful remakes, my favourite thing about ‘The Ring’ for example was the way in which a horse met it’s end, and as for ‘The Ring 2′ quite frankly it was rubbish. ‘The Grudge’ was similarly disappointing I felt, but then again I didn’t particularly like the Japanese ‘Ju-on’ film either. I didn’t even bother with the second ‘Grudge’ film, Walter Salles ‘Dark Water’ however is terrifically terrifying and in my opinion has here been remade incredibly well. That said, I’ve not seen the original so have nothing to compare it to; in it’s own right though this Walter Salles remake is excellent.

Dahlia has just got divorced from her husband and is now entangled in a bitter custody battle for daughter Cecilia. She must show that she can provide for her daughter and therefore must find a home, her budget is low and before long she therefore finds that she must move in to a small run down apartment as this is the only place she can find in New York City that suits her budget. In Cecilia’s bedroom there is a damp stain on the ceiling, disgusting dark water persistently leaks through the house, and strange goings on in the apartment mean that Dahlia’s mind starts to play tricks on her. It’s all too much for her and she feels as though she is going to crack, Cecilia is having problems also which really don’t help her cause. She realises all is not well and desperately seeks to find out what is going on in this strange apartment, Dahlia is adamant that she will get to the bottom of this and as the film unfolds she starts to ask questions and delves further into the history of this apartment and the previous inhabitants of the flat above which persistently leaks dark and dirty water.

If you’re expecting a conventional all visual horror film then ‘Dark Water’ will come as a great disappointment to you. This film works on a deeply psychological level, and working on the basis that it does is greatly effective. ‘Dark Water’ gave me goosebumps, I found this film genuinely frightening, and although I saw the ultimate outcome emerging from a long way off; this is perhaps the result of my watching far too many horror films for my own good over the years. The final scene of the film is quite odd and does in fact spoil it all a little, on the whole however this is an excellent remake of an extremely well received and highly popular Japanese horror. The majority of my favourite horror films work on a psychological basis, I gain far more enjoyment from seeing a horror film of this sort and do in fact find them ultimately a lot more scary than films that merely forefronts blood and guts. With psychological films you find that long after you have finished viewing the film, still it continues to effect you. ‘Dark Water’ makes you think for long after the film has finished, you’re on edge and extremely wired as you walk away from watching this. So frightening is this film that at times I really had to look away, this didn’t help my cause however as the chilling musical score continued to ring through my ears and always it was scaring me.

Music plays a large role in films of this sort, there is a spooky soundtrack here that provides for many of the films scares. The film is much more psychological than it is visual, and sound therefore has to play a large part in the horrific nature of ‘Dark Water’. All sorts of sounds are utilised here in order to make the film as effective as possible. Look away and your fear will not cease, plug your ears and merely watch the film though and you’ll not find it scary at all. There is some visual impact here, but bear in mind that this is not where the strength of this film lies. If you’re expecting the wrong sort of film then it would be easy to be left disappointed by ‘Dark Water’, slasher fans for instance may not fully appreciate the excellence of this film but I personally am a huge fan of all things horror and when watching any given film from the genre always I remain open minded.

In terms of performances, Jennifer Connelly as Dahlia is key here and certainly doesn’t disappoint in her role. She’s extremely convincing, you feel her pain and she really helps to make this film a success. Jennifer Connelly truly is a phenomenal actress, she is the central focus here and had she not been up to the job of carrying this film then ‘Dark Water’ would have failed. Young actress Ariel Gade also impresses here, she was only eight years old when this film was made and already she were exceptionally talented. There’s so much depth to this young character, she is not at all phased by it all and takes everything well and truly in her stride. I always wonder how people so young can appear in films such as this, surely they must on some level recognise how frightening the films are that they appear in and I can only imagine that it effects them in quite a way. As a twenty something year old male I am petrified in watching ‘Dark Water’ and yet one of the main people within the film that provides for the creepy nature of it all is a third of my age. It seems a little odd when you think about it like this, as I say though; the performances here are brilliant and everyone is hugely impressive in their parts.

The deteriorating state of mind of Dahlia is what makes this film so creepy. As the film progresses, for much of it all we are kept in the dark as to whether this is all going on in her head or whether it is truly happening. The boundaries between fantasy and reality are blurred, the content of the film in itself is not particular frightening, but the effect that the film has on you I feel is chilling. Some may not see this film as scary, I did though as a result of the subject matter and the way in which it all comes together. It’s psychologically scarring I feel, the film is given only a 15 certificate and yet for me this is a lot more effective and frightening than a lot of films that are given the 18 rating. A connection with the spirit world is here explored to great effect, it’s believable and for this extremely frightening.

Not everyone will be impressed with ‘Dark Water’, for some it shan’t seem scary and given it’s label as a ‘horror’ film some may feel a little cheated by the content of this film. This is a greatly effective psychological horror, an excellent film of its sort and one that I personally can’t recommend highly enough. Walter Salles has here put forth a film that scares greatly, psychologically it cuts deep and for me ‘Dark Water’ is hugely frightening and continued to terrify me for hours after I had finished watching it. ‘Dark Water’ is definitely a film that I would recommend, it loses impact a little through trying to introduce too many characters but all in all this is a brilliant film that I personally found to be hugely effective.

Rating:

The Futureheads – Radio Heart

The return of The Futureheads was marked by the release of ‘Radio Heart’, a track that made it sound as though the band had never been away at all. ‘Radio Heart’ carries on where the band left off with their last album; the music has not progressed very much at all but should that really be seen as a bad thing? The way I see it is that it shouldn’t, The Futureheads is still a band playing catchy Indie music and if you find a winning formula then why not stick with it. ‘Radio Heart’ is a hugely catchy single; the clean drum beats shine through strongly in the sound and the guitar riffs also are absolutely excellent here. The vocal tone has not changed one iota, vocally The Futureheads sound is as fresh and fun as ever and I for one absolutely love it. This is three minutes of The Futureheads finest, most definitely a single that I personally would highly recommend seeking out.

Label: Nul Records
Release Date: 19th May 2008

Rating:

Refused – The Shape of Punk to Come

This year marks the tenth anniversary of the release of ‘The Shape of Punk to Come’ album from Refused. Refused was a Swedish Hardcore Punk band and active between the years of 1991 and 1998. ‘The Shape of Punk to Come’ was the last album that the band would ever release, an album that marked a dramatic change from their earlier work and is considered by most to be the best album that the band ever released. Ten years on it is still an album which is held in extremely high regard, and several nods towards this album have been made from UK based bands in recent years. Adequate Seven had a track entitled ‘The Shape of Funk to Come’ on their ‘Songs of Innocence and Experience’ album, and Sonic Boom Six have a track called ‘The Rape of Punk to Come’ on their ‘Sounds To Consume’ EP. It is clear that although Refused as a band are long since dead, their impact upon modern Punk music is still being felt today and this is due to the exceptional quality which their music possessed. The music of Refused possessed a great energy, and they embodied the true essence of Punk with their vigorous aggression and ‘Screw You’ mentality.

With a heavily Marxist ideology and inspiration drawn largely from the hardcore bands ‘Nation of Ulysees’ and ‘Born Against’, Refused blast their way through ‘The Shape Of Punk to Come’ album with a great deal of intensity and a huge level of energy. The band begin their album with the furious ‘Worms of the Senses / Faculties of the Skull’, end it with the awesome ‘The Apollo Programme Was a Hoax’, and never once do they show any signs of weakness whatsoever. In my opinion ‘The Shape of Punk to Come’ was the finest hour of music that Refused ever did record as a band, and for this reason it is and perhaps always will be my favourite hardcore punk album of all time.

As the band repeat the line of ‘We want the airwaves back’ throughout the track ‘Liberation Frequency’, there is something greatly hard hitting about this. It is when they slam into a hardcore assault of shouted vocal fury however that this track truly comes alive. It is one of my favourite tracks from this album, but then again there is not one single track here that I do not hold in extremely high regard. Such aggression is expressed on this album and yet the whole time the lyrical content is excellent. The music is intelligent and insightful, heavy and greatly effective; Refused were an excellent band and ‘The Shape of Punk to Come’ provides all the evidence you should require to hear just how brilliant a band Refused truly was.

‘Summerholidays Vs. Punkroutine’ is another of the finest moments that this album has to offer. There is near on a full hour of exceptional music here (55 minutes and 11 seconds to be precise), but there are a few tracks that I really see as key to ‘The Shape of Punk to Come’ album as a whole. Due to some exceptional drum work, a powerful vocal style, and hugely effective use of guitars; this is one of those tracks that I can’t help but see as essential to this album and its overall excellence. The track includes the interesting vocal line of ‘Rather be forgotten than remembered for giving in’, a line I can fully relate to and appreciate. The lyrics are always interesting and never do they disappoint, always they are intelligently thought out with each line carefully woven to the next.

Opening vocally with the shouted line of ‘Can I Scream?! Yeah!’, ‘New Noise’ is perhaps the most memorable of all tracks from this album. The opening guitar riff has to be one of my favourites of all time, one that every time I hear I just want to pick up a guitar and tear it out myself. The memorable vocal line doesn’t actually kick in until over a minute into the track, and yet everything that comes before it is equally memorable if not more so. The guitar riff is repeated relentlessly throughout the track and never does it becomes tiresome. I could listen to that riff all day, I truly could; it genuinely is that excellent. Shouting ‘We dance to all the wrong songs, We enjoy all the wrong moves’ multiple times over, the track comes to its end with the repeated line of ‘The new beat!’ over and over before simply settling with a ‘Thank you’ for the final few seconds of the track. Everything about this one comes together perfectly, it is an absolutely excellent offering of hardcore punk and I fail to see how anyone could not love this.

Title track ‘The Shape of Punk to Come’ is another track from the band blessed with an absolutely excellent guitar riff. The guitar riff here is in fact more impressive than that of ‘New Noise’, this I feel says a lot about the quality and consistency of this album. Every time I listen to this I picture the band tearing their way through the track, bouncing around brutally as they dazzle everyone with their fine display of hardcore punk perfection. The vocal line of ‘We’re all dressed up, we’ve got somewhere to go’ lives long in the memory, it is meticulously exploded out from the mouth of Dennis Lyxzén and I have no cause for complaint whatsoever.

The album comes to a close with the controversially titled ‘The Apollo Programme Was A Hoax’, a four minute swan song which begins with the sound of a double bass and as it progresses turns out to be the only slow paced track present on this album. For this final track of their last ever album, Refused saw it fit to bow out with a track memorable for it’s difference from the rest of the album it belongs to. The lyrical focus here is on the overthrow of the ruling power, a revolution involving ‘petrol bombs & barricades’ in the ultimate hope that ‘sabotage will set us free’. It’s an interesting track that does I feel benefit from it’s slow pace, the lyrical content is hard hitting and this final track is one that I do in fact enjoy hugely so. The band vocally state here that ‘The destruction of everything is the beginning of something new’, it’s an interesting line from Refused and as always is one that truly does make you think. The lyrical content of this album is absolutely brilliant, never are the band anything short of sensational in the lyrics department. Every single track from Refused makes you think with ‘The Shape of Punk to Come’, not one is in the slightest bit disappointing and every track in fact is intelligently crafted and created.

To quote the title of a track from this release ‘Refused Are *****in Dead’, the bands music does however live on in the form of the albums that Refused released during their seven year reign. Refused were an absolutely excellent hardcore punk band, and this last album of theirs in my opinion is by far their finest offering. There is nothing more satisfying than sitting down and listening to ‘The Shape of Punk to Come’, not one track disappoints and every one of the twelve tracks here present is in fact entirely excellent. Never have I come across a finer hour of music than this, it’s ten years since the album was released but it’s significance is still massive; a definitive album in the history of hardcore punk. ‘The Shape of Punk to Come’ is vital listening, this is without doubt one of my favourite albums of all time and to say that this is the finest hardcore punk album ever released really goes without saying. Its great musical intelligence and expansive lyrical depth make ‘The Shape of Punk to Come’ a truly enlightening album from a once great, now gone hardcore punk band.

Label: Burning Heart
Release Date: 27th October 1998

Rating:

Look See Proof – Do You Think It’s Right

I have to admit that before hearing this track I was not previously aware of the band Look See Proof, before long however I can tell that this band will be filling dance floors up and down the country with their brilliantly energetic music. It is uplifting and greatly upbeat indie music which is great fun to listen to and never do the band disappoint with this tremendous single. ‘Do You Think It’s Right’ is a bright and cheery offering from the band, one I can’t help but dance along to as I listen. It’s got an infectious beat about it, and with B-sides ‘Don’t Say A Word’ and ‘Casualty (Os Darkroom Remix)’ the band also impress and show themselves to be extremely talented. Look out for Look See Proof, it shouldn’t be long before these boys are massive, already they are sounding like they have the quality required to sell millions of records and personally I’d love to see them do so.

Label: Weekender Records
Release Date: 24th March 2008

Rating:

Kate Nash – Merry Happy

Kate Nash has achieved an awful lot in her relatively short career thus far. Her début album ‘Made of Bricks’ has gone Platinum, and I just feel that at only 20 years old she has already accomplished more than most will achieve in a lifetime. Despite this, I have absolutely no appreciation for her music whatsoever and I do in fact find that she has one of the most annoying voices in the world. ‘Merry Happy’ does nothing to change my mind about the young artist and is in fact one of the tracks I hated the most from her album. Containing lyrics such as ‘Dancing at discos, eating cheese on toast’, this is hardly the signs of a genius lyricist at work. Kate Nash takes mundane topics and sings about them in a mundane way, she’s dull and offers nothing of worth as a singer-songwriter I feel. All I can say is that it’s lucky that this one won’t be as prolific a performer as her previous releases. Only 1000 copies of each format are being released; two x 7” and one CD. Hopefully ‘Merry Happy’ wont be getting much radio airplay and we’ll soon be able to say goodbye to Kate Nash once and for all. She surely wont be releasing a second studio album and my opinion on the matter is that the sooner she’s gone the better.

Label: Fiction Records
Release Date: 24th March

Rating:

Panic at the Disco – Pretty Odd

When Panic at the Disco released the début album ‘A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out’ in early 2006 they quickly became the nations favourite band. In truth the band was little more than a Fall Out Boy clone with an added synth element to their sound, but nonetheless the music appealed to many and thus over 2.2 million copies of their début have been shifted in the U.S. alone. Whilst I’d be the first to admit that their sound was not particularly progressive and was merely a regurgitation of sounds which in truth had already been done to death before Panic at the Disco even came to be, I must say that I personally am a huge fan of the first album and it is in fact one that I still play an awful lot now. When Panic at the Disco emerged in early 2008 with new track ‘Nine in the Afternoon’ it came as quite a shock then that the music I was hearing I actually found to be terrifically dull and boring. All the life and energy that the band had previously possessed was all but gone, Panic at the Disco were a mere shadow of their former selves and any excitement that had formerly existed in their sound was now seemingly no more.

‘Pretty Odd’ opens with the disappointing ‘We’re So Starving’, a minute and a half of lacklustre self loving nonsense. There’s a great irony of the band here singing ‘You don’t have to worry cause we’re still the same band’, a complete lie of a statement which completely contradicts the fact that the music on this second album is entirely uninspiring and devoid of any of the great energy that their début was so packed with. As Panic at the Disco plod their way through this lethargic opener you know right from the offset that this album really isn’t going to be up to much and that ‘Pretty Odd’ is in actual fact going to be pretty rubbish. ‘We’re so sorry we’ve been gone’ Brendon Urie doth sing, oh how I wish that they’d never come back; at least that way I’d have purely fond memories of the band, as it stands however the mere thought of Panic at the Disco fills me with anger at how such a talented and enthusiastic band could let it all go so horribly wrong.

Before listening to this album I was not at all looking forward to once more hearing the track ‘Nine in the Afternoon’ that has been polluting the airwaves of national radio for some weeks now. When listening to this album though you start to realise that it is in fact one of the highlights here. It’s by no means a good track, it is however more tolerable than much of the tracks on this album. It quickly becomes irritating, drags along painfully and never do Panic at the Disco here show any real talent. Now I’m not one to dissect the lyrical content of bands of this sort, but when lines as poor as ‘It’s nine in the afternoon, and your eyes are the size of the moon’ are thrust upon you, it’s quite hard not to pass comment about them. I’d love to know what the bands guitarist-come-lyricist Ryan Ross was thinking when this track was written, surely no one in their right mind would truly see these lines as well written? As the band further progress through this album though you learn that the cringe worthy lines definitely don’t stop here. As Brendon Urie so eloquently puts across the line of ‘I know it’s sad that I never gave a damn about the weather, And it never gave a damn about me’ you can’t help but have a wry smile to yourself. The lyrics of Panic at the Disco have never been particularly excellent, but they surely could have done better than this. Some may argue that Panic at the Disco are here purely further exploring the subtly ironic humour that was exhibited on début album ‘A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out’, I however see these heinous lyrical crimes as nothing but laziness.

The first real moment of promise on this album comes in the form of ‘That Green Gentleman (Things Have Changed)’. The only way to really describe this track is that its sort of how the band sounded on their first album, but the music just isn’t quite right. The guitars go off in a strange distorted manner, and the band all seem to be progressing in different directions. This is not a band, but instead four different musicians that each want to achieve something different with the music. The vocals are quite like the more successful anthems from the ‘A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out’ album, the way in which the tune progresses however just isn’t anywhere near as appealing. The band members all sound tired, you get the impression that the band don’t want to be producing music any more and have merely released a second album in order to cash in a little more on the success that was garnered with the first album. The lyrics are lazy, the tunes are half cocked, and everything about the music is just entirely uninspiring and really kind of irritating.

What I hate most about this ‘Pretty Odd’ album is the fact that there are fifteen tracks here meaning that the album clocks in at over 48 minutes in length. Whilst with ‘A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out’ there were thirteen tracks and subsequently eight minutes less of music, when I listened to that album I was left wanting for more, but when I listen to ‘Pretty Odd’ I am constantly wanting for it all to come to a close. The album drags and it drags, track after track the band continues to disappoint and never once do Panic at the Disco here offer up anything even close to lively or exciting. There are a couple of tracks that are interesting to begin with, but even those fast become boring. Panic at the Disco completely lose the plot halfway through this album, the second half drags even more so than the first and never is there anything remotely interesting to cling on to for a little bit of listening satisfaction. By the time that final track ‘Mad As Rabbits’ is reached, four or five tracks have already come before that leave no lasting impact whatsoever. At best ‘Pretty Odd’ is background music, and I don’t know about you but personally I have standards for my background music and definitely wouldn’t offend my ears with such background bilge as this.

‘Mad As Rabbits’ as a closing track is not at all effective. It’s a lifeless bore that fails to ever really get going and in truth is perhaps the perfect closer for an album that disappoints so heavily. You’re not expecting anything to happen here, and in that respect I guess the track does it’s job in providing for the lacklustre close you always knew it would be. The lyrics are ridiculous, the back beat will wash right over you, and the vocals have no life in them whatsoever. It is the lifeless nature of the vocals I feel that makes the ‘Pretty Odd’ album such a great disappointment, Brendon Urie was always hugely enthusiastic as he sung his way through the bands ‘A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out’ début album, here however he sounds incredibly bored at almost all times and rarely does he show any signs of perking up. The vocal skill of Brendon Urie was what I loved most about Panic at the Disco, and although he alone is not to blame for the failure of the band on this album; he must take a fair proportion of it. In the bands first album however, the tracks were always blessed with a catchy chorus and super guitar hook as well which would never fail to press all the right buttons. Throughout the ‘Pretty Odd’ album there is not one such brilliant guitar hook that I can think of, even the riffs that were remotely interesting to begin with were repeated so many times in a track that they became infuriatingly irritating. The general melody of the tracks just isn’t the same as it were with ‘A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out’, interesting and quirky has now been replaced with tiresome and predictable. The music plods, the vocals drone, and on every level ‘Pretty Odd’ is pretty ineffective.

Panic at the Disco is probably the biggest rock band in the world right now, the fact of the matter though is that this second album ‘Pretty Odd’ just isn’t very good. The band show no real signs of promise here, the music is dull and uninspiring; energy is kept to a minimum and when listening to this album you get the distinct impression that after four years together as a band Panic at the Disco no longer want to be making music under this name. All four members of the band seem to be dragging in different directions, the music has therefore been ruined and the sound that Panic at the Disco produce on this ‘Pretty Odd’ album is incredibly poor and at too many times provides for a painful listening experience. Had Panic at the Disco released this album as their first then I have no doubt that success would never have come for them, as it stands though ‘Pretty Odd’ will no doubt go on to sell far more copies than it really should. This is not a good album, it’s not even an average one for that matter; ‘Pretty Odd’ is incredibly poor and Panic at the Disco really should have done a lot better than this.

Label: Fueled By Ramen
Release Date: 24th March 2008

Rating:

Stone Gods – Burn the Witch

When Justin Hawkins announced his departure from The Darkness, did the others accept defeat and call it a day? Did they heck. As soon as The Darkness met their end Dan Hawkins and Richie Edwards got together and decided that they would form a new band, a band far greater than their previous one ever had been. They got to work, keeping on board The Darkness drummer Ed Graham and recruiting Toby MacFarlaine on bass guitar, the bass guitarist for former Blur member Graham Coxon. It was envisaged that this time round they would do things the way they wanted to do them, their would be no pop music here but instead straight up rock music. They’ve stuck to their guns and come up with an EP here that is complete with four fantastic rock anthems.

First up here is ‘Burn The Witch’, by far my favourite of all the tracks present on this EP. It is the ‘Burn The Witch’ EP after all though so I guess that it’s only right that this should be so. If you’re a fan of the likes of Thin Lizzy, AC/DC, Mötley Crüe etc. then the sound that this band produce will be right up your street. It is hard rock at it’s finest, the guitar riffs are hugely powerful and the vocals come belting through with great vigour. Stone Gods mean business here and ‘Burn The Witch’ is the finest example of hard rock music that they have to offer on this EP, don’t let this have you believe that the rest of the EP isn’t worth listening to however as this certainly isn’t true at all.

As second track ‘You Brought A Knife To A Gunfight’ starts up once more the band impress greatly. The band carry on steam rolling through here with some more hard hitting rock music, a fine display of how rock music should always sound. It’s not watered down in the slightest, Stone Gods are not gearing themselves towards the pop market here whatsoever; they are in fact steering well away from it with the sound that they are coming out with. The chorus is epic here and everything about the track comes across perfectly, I fail to find fault with this track and do in fact greatly appreciate the hard rock sound that the band have to offer here. The lyrics are perfectly put across, spat out with great venom and truly believable as they come spitting from the mouth of Richie Edwards.

‘Break Down’ is the penultimate track on this EP, an epic rock riff is set at its beginning and as the track unfolds never does it disappoint. It’s not the most powerful of tracks on this EP, but still it is greatly impressive and it certainly doesn’t disappoint. Never on this release do the Stone Gods ever fail to impress, always there is plenty going on in the music with a number of factors helping to keep you entertained at all times. The vocals are never short of sensational, the drum beat always come pounding, and not once do the guitar riffs fail to make an impact. The instrumental work of this band is phenomenal, and the vocal display of excellence compliments this perfectly as Stone Gods fire their way through this EP with a great spirit and epic quality of utmost excellence.

‘Heartburn’ closes the release and offers up one final moment of glory before the band take their bow from this EP. The vocals are put across well, and the instrumental work is of great strength throughout the entirety of the track. It winds things down nicely for the end of EP, offering great closure as things are brought to an end by the band. Throughout all of this release all elements of the music come together perfectly and this closing track is no exception, it is an absolutely brilliant display of electrifying rock ‘n’ roll. You can tell that the end is in the air here, Stone Gods prove themselves to be great masters of picking the perfect closing track.

People expecting a carbon copy of The Darkness may well be sorely disappointed with what they hear here from the Stone Gods, those out there that love a bit of hard hitting rock music however should be in for a right royal treat. Stone Gods are a hugely impressive hard rock band and prove this to the world here with this EP that melds elements of heavy metal, straight up rock, and full on ballads in order to produce one of the finest four tracks I have heard in a long while. The bad news about this EP is that it sold out in physical form on the day of its release meaning that your only option to buy the ‘Burn The Witch’ EP now in CD form would be to go scouring the listings of Ebay. The goods news however is that it’s available for download and can therefore be found at all the finest download stores across the land, so should you feel so inclined as to buy this EP then get yourself over to iTunes pronto! Personally I would definitely recommend giving this EP a listen, I found it to be a hugely impressive offering of hard rock and these four tracks will therefore no doubt be played by myself for many years to come.

Label: Self Released
Release Date: 25th February 2008

Rating:

Pennywise – Reason to Believe

‘Reason to Believe’ is the ninth studio album from the American punk rock band that is Pennywise. In late 2006 the bands guitarist Fletcher Dragge predicted that the album would be released in the summer of 2007, but summer came and went with no new Pennywise album having emerged. In September 2007 the band then announced that they had around 60 new songs to choose from and that they would therefore be spending the next few months choosing the best of the lot for inclusion on the album. Fifteen tracks are contained on the ‘Reason to Believe’ album, and if these are the best of the 60 that they had available then I really hate to think what the worst were like. This is not a bad album from Pennywise by any means, but really it has very few highlights to speak of and the band drift their way through this album without any real intent or direction. In the past their albums have at times been extremely hard hitting, Pennywise have recorded brilliant punk rock music by anyone’s standards. Sadly ‘Reason to Believe’ is not up there amongst their best and it would seem that having released nine studio albums now the band are running a little low on ideas.

There are moments of great promise contained within this album, and the guitar riffs are often excellent. The problem here is that a lot of the time the tracks just all sound the same and ‘Reason to Believe’ therefore makes for extremely unenthralling listening. Even the enjoyable tracks on this album soon become tiresome as they lack life and by the time the tracks are over you just find yourself really rather bored. Even though a lot of these tracks clock in at around the three minute mark, somehow this is too long and perhaps it would have favoured the band to have put forward two minute tracks rather than three.

‘Something to Live For’ is the first real moment of promise that Pennywise put forward from this album. It’s instantly catchy and as the band progress their way through the track they sound like an extremely tight unit as they smash out the guitar riffs and the vocals come firing. Although the track starts well however I soon myself getting bored with it and by the time it’s finished I find myself to have drifted off entirely. Listening to music should not be such a chore as this, if a band have enough about them to get you interested in a track in the first place then there is no reason why you should be able to lose that interest so easily. I think it’s laziness on behalf of the band that is to blame for this album being so average, they have evidenced with their sound in the past that they are talented musicians with plenty to offer and yet they just don’t show that here. They put forward a strong guitar riff, but repeat it so many times within the same track that by the final note you’re completely sick of it and never wish to hear it ever again.

‘It’s Not Enough to Believe’ is a fairly decent track from this album, the vocals contain quite a bite and there are some excellent gang vocals as the track unfolds. Great use is made of backing vocals here in order to make the track greatly powerful, all the while there is a driving guitar riff that makes the track greatly entertaining to listen to. It’s not up there amongst the best that the band have ever recorded, but it’s certainly a decent track from the band and is definitely a lot better than much of this release in which the band seemingly have very little to offer whatsoever. It is just the right length, an interesting and uplifting punk rock track from the band which is packed full of promise. ‘You Get the Life You Choose’ follows on from this track and is once more a fast and frantic offering in which the music is tremendous fun to listen to and always entertaining. Again, it’s not one of the best tracks that the band have ever recorded but is definitely amongst the best that they have to offer with their ‘Reason to Believe’ album.

‘Next in Line’ ends this album amicably and is in fact the best track that ‘Reason to Believe’ has to offer. It is an energetic and exciting punk rock number and the band fire through this one with a real fury. This is Pennywise at their best, why however they couldn’t have been consistently excellent throughout the whole of this release I really have no idea. They have shown in the past that they can write brilliant albums, and even if the majority of tracks here were only half as good as ‘Next in Line’ then this would at least be a start. Although ‘Next in Line’ is a fantastic punk rock offering complete with some truly inspirational double bass pedal work; it is too little, too late for Pennywise and through being entirely average throughout much of this album they have already let themselves down far too much for this one track to be able to redeem the album as a whole from the land of mediocrity.

One major plus point about this album is that in America a deal has been arranged through MySpace Records in order to provide the ‘Reason to Believe’ album as a free digital download , a release date has been scheduled for this digital freebie of March 25th 2008. Sadly however no such deal has been arranged in the UK and you’d therefore have to part with your hard earned cash if you were wishing to own this album in physical or digital form. Personally I wouldn’t advise this, not unless you really are a massive fan of Pennywise and wouldn’t feel quite right if you didn’t own every single album in their back catalogue. ‘Reason to Believe’ is an average and frankly uninspiring album from Pennywise, occasionally the band sound interesting but most of the time they merely sound bored.

Label: Epitaph/Myspace Records
Release Date: 24th March 2008

Rating:

Four Year Strong – Rise Or Die Trying

Four Year Strong are an American Pop Punk band that take a strong influence from the hardcore scene. Whilst their sound is by no means hardcore, it definitely takes on a heavier and edgier approach at times than most Pop Punk music out there. The band come from Massachusetts and in February it was announced that they had signed to Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy’s personal record label Decaydance Records.

On this album the band start off bright eyed and bushy tailed, and for the first few tracks I found this album to be greatly enjoyable. After a while however you start to realise that in this album it sounds like the band are playing the same track over and over. Never do they seem to deviate at all from their formula, it is a hard edged Pop Punk sound and always it seems to take the same form. There will be the occasional breakdown of heaviness in each of their tracks, and the rest will be seemingly the same upbeat pop heavy sound. Vocally this band sound like a lot of other bands out there, they sound like Fall Out Boy at times, Brand New at others, quite like New Found Glory on the odd occasion, but never do they sound like themselves. Always it sounds like Four Year Strong are trying to replicate the formula of already successful artists, scared of trying their hand at their own approach to music. Their sound is pretty decent, but there is no depth to it whatsoever and it therefore quickly becomes tiresome.

Listening to a whole album of music that entirely lacks distinction and differentiation is a greatly difficult matter, the few moments of hardcore spirit that each track possesses is not nearly enough to add energy and excitement to the sound. The most annoying thing about this band is that when they start the album with the track ‘The Take Over’, I actually thought that I was going to be in for a great treat with Four Year Strong. It is fast, fun and frantic and as the band progress their way through this one they always sound full of life and as though they will have plenty to offer with this album. They are just too happy and upbeat throughout the entirety of ‘Rise or Die Trying’ and you can therefore only listen to so much before seriously wanting to hurt them. Fall Out Boy are a similar sort of band to Four Year Strong, granted their music doesn’t contain the hardcore bursts that this does but it is really much the same. The main difference between Four Year Strong and Fall Out Boy and the reason why the latter will always be a far more successful band is that in each Fall Out Boy album is contained a great deal of variation; a number of different sounds comes across on the album and they therefore stand out strongly as a band. Fall Out Boy also have greatly catchy chorus that help separate them from the pack, with the music of Four Year Strong it is all so upbeat and of the same tempo that you really don’t know where the verse ends and the chorus begins. The music is all on the same level and it is this that means that their music quickly becomes really very irritating.

Eleven tracks are included on the ‘Rise or Die Trying’ album and if you’ve heard one then really you’ve heard them all. They may as well not name their tracks here, if you were to hand me this album and ask me to name the tracks out of their listed order purely from listening to them then I would not be able to at all. The only difference between ‘Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Hell’, ‘Beatdown In The Key Of Happy’ or ‘Heroes Get Remembered, Legends Never Die’ is their titles, and the same can be said of all eleven of these tracks. Bands often stick to a basic formula in their music but it is quite rare to hear an album in which each and every track is a near on carbon copy of both the next and last.

For the first few minutes of its play ‘Rise Or Die Trying’ is an absolutely excellent album, it is only when the album begins to get into full swing however that you realise that every track is exactly the same and that Four Year Strong only seem to have one idea. Since 2001 this band have been going, it would seem however that they’ve not managed too much in their years and although the one track they have written is a good one, hearing it eleven times on one album is not a greatly rewarding listening experience. Whether or not the band realise their lack of musical depth is debatable, I’m sure I’ll not be the only person in the world that notices it however. This is exactly the kind of music I usually love, what I don’t love however is albums in which the tracks are all too similar and samey and ‘Rise Or Die Trying’ as an album is the worst culprit of this that I have perhaps ever heard. As a listener and great fan of Pop Punk I refuse to be treated like an idiot, and when a band push out a whole album of tracks that all sound the same I find this simply unacceptable. With the band having recently signed to Decaydance Records, this album will no doubt be heard by a lot of people and I hate to think how many will buy this insipid album of sound alike songs. Download one song from this album, any song; it simply doesn’t matter, whichever one you choose it will pretty much be the same song anyway. If you want to get the same effect as you’d get from listening to this album then simply listen to it eleven times straight and prepare to become angered by the relentlessly upbeat nature of Four Year Strong, otherwise listen to the track once and once only and you’ll probably actually be really quite impressed.

Label: Hassle Records
Release Date: 28th April 2008

Rating:

The Secret Handshake – Gamegirl

When I read the name I assumed that The Secret Handshake would be some NME endorsed Indie band. Apparently I was wrong, and instead when I started playing this CD what my ears were graced with was a strange electro-pop sound. There are elements of Indie in the music, but this is certainly not what I was expecting that’s for sure. In a way I was pleased that the music of The Secret Handshake was a bit different to what I had been expecting, and ‘Gamegirl’ is definitely an interesting track. The problem is that I can’t quite work out whether I like this or not. Vocally, The Secret handshake are quite impressive, but the knob twiddling electro edged music is at times really quite irritating. The Secret Handshake is all one man; Luis Dubuc, and yet it sounds like so much more than this. There is just too much going on at once within the sound and the airwaves can become a little congested. I feel like covering my ears at times, but at others am glad to have them open. I remain undecided about this single, there are times when I like it and others when I hate it; I think the easiest solution is for you to listen to it and make up your own mind about The Secret Handshake. I’m not sure whether I’d recommend listening to the music or not.

Label: sixsevenine
Release Date: 17th March 2008

Rating:

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