After a terrible, unnecessary, and 10 times louder than the actual music minute-and-a-half noise intro, this Canadian act finally picks up into some fairly typical pop punk that's too raw to really work, but could be good with a tighter and more rounded recording. I'm not into the slapped basslines or occasionally quirky riffs, and the vocals are definitely weak, but they're good at the faster chord progressions, quick stops, and typical Fat Wreck styled riffing. Now, those points aside, the songs aren't that good. There are some cool passages, but the weaknesses do overcome in the end, so there aren't really any truly memorable songs, and the material's not even half as catchy as pop punk needs to be to get by... A better singer would make a hell of a difference, I can say that. "Another Complaint" breaks out some generic ska chords and "pick it up" vocals, and I hate 99.9% of ska, so this does nothing for me and makes no sense in the context of the rest of the demo (aside from the unnecessary and not very good cover of The Police's "Roxanne"). They throw around a few old school hardcore riffs through, and a teeny bit of metal in "World Motivation", which I could go either way on. Not great, not bad... the old school hardcore stuff is a little stronger. As for how it actually sounds, the drums are okay, but the vocals are pretty lifeless and dull, and the guitars aren't right. They're not loud enough, not bright enough, etc. The bass tone is pretty damn good when he's not slappin' it up, but... you know, the end result definitely sounds like a demo of sorts. The singing needs a lot of work to be active and catchy enough to carry these songs, the guitar tone needs a good deal of polishing, and then they'd need to score a crisp mix that balances everything out. I really think the slap bass is fucking things up for 'em, though. The CD-R comes in a slim jewel case with a purple tray and minimal artwork. The tracklist is on the back of the insert with some tiny band photos, and that's that. Nothing here's that strong, really. I've heard worse, but this is pretty halfassed in my opinion. They're trying, and they're tight players, so there's something here, but I'm bored.
[self-released]
Running time - 19:44, Tracks: 9
[Notable tracks: none of 'em really make a dent]
3 Against 1 - http://www.3against1.ca
