Tuesday 22 December 2009

Review - Various - Chaos Days & All Or Nothing - Split EP

Various - Chaos Days & All Or Nothing - Split EP

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8 out of 10

Kicking off the EP, Birmingham punks, All or Nothing put everything they can into the two tracks they are given. Hate Being the Dip Guy propels the Split off to a great start, reminiscent of hardcore punks Set Your Goals, the song is a sure-fire party anthem, almost impossible not to remember and definitely a hard song to avoid bouncing along to. The vocal work is decent but the track really picks up in the outro chorus with the inclusion of the backing vocals. In future, it may be wise to do some more dual vocal work as the backing vocalist has a voice that is perfectly suited for the genre All or Nothing seem to occupy.

Don't Do This lacks the immediacy of the previous effort but is no less worthy of some hyperbole. Possibly sounding even more like a Set Your Goals song, Don't Do This has the sort of chorus guaranteed to get any crowd moving. It sounds like a back-handed compliment, but this is almost the perfect support-band song. At a gig, if you a seeing a support-band you don't know, you need a song that has a catchy hook and the ability to get the crowd involved even if they've never heard the song before. This song supplies all of these things.

Chaos Days are possibly the slightly more musically adventurous of the two. Though paradoxically, while You & I is the best song on the disc, At Heaven's Gate is dragging up the rear. It is clear that the singer has been listening to Daryl Palumbo in his formative years and his voice has so many of the intonations that the Glassjaw frontman possesses, it's almost uncanny. Just listen to At Heaven's Gate and it could be a Head Automatica song. Regardless, their two efforts have a greater maturity to them than All or Nothing's. You & I is a brilliant song, well worth repeated listens. And while I decided their second effort to be the worst song on the disc, it is still not a bad song whatsoever.

It's definitely refreshing to hear decent British pop-punk that ascends the usual tosh that gets on Kerrang TV. I recommend heartily that you pick this up, support British bands and find two that you will be looking out for in the future.

Listen: www.myspace.com/allornothing & www.myspace.com/chaosdays

Tracklist:
1. Hate Being the Dip Guy - All Or Nothing
2. Don't Do This - All Or Nothing
3. You & I - Chaos Days
4. At Heaven's Gate - Chaos Days

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