Received this courtesy of Choff from Snub, whose new album is apparently related to canine testicles. We’ll see. Anyway, yeah, received this demo. First thing, no music relation. The bio. I know, bands do bios. They have to. And it’s really fucking irritating when you receive an e-mail saying "check us out dude" and that’s it. They expect you to go to the website, look, review everything without providing details. So it’s like get a balance. Because no info is no help, but bio’s are inevitably bollocks. Full of crap that if I personally am in a really bad mood just sets things up nicely to want to rip bands apart before listening to the music. See they often tell you how "original" they are, how they’re "carving their own niche and providing a sound comparable to no one". Utter tosh and you and I both know it. There’s just about no originality left these days. Which DOESN’T mean stuff is crap, just means you take it for what it is. Why the spiel here. Cos like I said, bio’s are full of crap. What I don’t like though, is when people pretend to be something they’re not. You may have gathered that from elsewhere in here this issue. Anyway, a simple thing, but Imprint in their bio say "their sophomore recording, which was scheduled to be recorded in the fall." Uh, sorry, sophomore? Fall? The bio says you’re from Brighton. Sohpomore? Fall? Noooooooooooooooooooooo. You’re not American. Don’t try to be. It sounds stupid.

And there’s good and bad with it. Vocalist L is kind of at the centre of it for me. The first track opens up and there’s the bullfrog style vocal. It’s almost immediately offset by a more melodic vocal, which sounds to me like it’s taken a nod from the more nasal style of Patton. They’re so different that it really does sound like 2 different vocalists. The problem is, the gruff bullfrog vocals sound too forced, and at the moment there’s not enough power and control there to pull them off. On the other hand, the melodic vocals work, and for me they work better with the style of music anyway. The problem there being if they follow that path, then I’m sure it may be considered too lightweight or, god forbid, commercial for the more hardcore audience I think they’re aiming for and suited to. That’s not to say the music is lightweight, it’s not, it’s just for me the melodic would give it an edge, make it stand out more. But, if you’ve read many reviews I’ve ever written, that’s a fairly common theme for me. I’m not a true hardcore fan, and the feeling is there’s many bands like Imprint, who are great at what they do, but are they going to make a difference or an impact (sorry). And I don’t mean on a grand scale. Use the strenghts, and I think at the moment that Imprint’s strengths are just slightly differently aligned. The music you see is decent, some nice riffs, more melodic moments. It’s not far removed from all the nu-metal scene, so if you like that, you’ll probably find something here of interest, even if it’s not entirely original. But then what is? My reviews certainly ain’t.

Definite lack of demos so far this issue. But hey, if the bands don’t want them reviewed, then just keep on not sending ‘em. But one I do have is from D’Void. Bad name. Too cheesy. Which is a shame because the music itself isn’t half bad. They’ve got their sound and the production together, the guitars are meaty and the drums are crisp. It’s coming from a thrash background, though more founded in the more modern era like Machine Head and company. But although the 3 tracks on offer, Blackout, Prime-evil and Fader are good, they don’t have that killer riff or melody that’s needed to move them up to the next level. And this may be unfair, but it appears they’re a three piece, with Jim Foster on guitar and vocals. Just going by the music and my own perceptions and enjoyment of it, they need a frontman. This is music that needs someone to be the focal point and take everything by the scruff of the neck, and often that’s so hard to achieve when you’ve got someone handling both the vocals and the music.