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Time is the Distance Deviates |
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Quick chord changes, fast breaks, sudden vocal injections and plenty o' melody, and here we are going the "distance" with the Deviates-an excellent name that beats the Hell outta me how it hasn't been used before… with any real degree of prominence anyway. They're melodic Punk with an edge, very on the upswing, fairly well-mannered and not amongst your raise your fist straight through the ceiling variety but there's a catchy addictiveness to the ensuing mild-mannered madness-"Turn it Down," "Right Back to You," flush the treble level a little bit here, density from the diaphragm in imperfect unison and we're getting a full barrage of sonic body blows here that weren't expected from the onset. Deviates employ every measure of the highly-influential and main stage form of Power/Punk, harmony and a few tweaks of the knob to go with a Metal scrape now and again-where've we heard this before? San Francisco might be a good place to start but maybe So. Cal's more the norm yet in any instance Deviates aren't ready to be filed away with the rest of the "almost isn't enough" mid-tempo models ripping yet another page out of the Bad Religion bible or kidnapping the Offspring again for kicks, they've got a knack for mixing things up in such a way where what you expect to happen, happens but not in an obvious way. Case in point, "One in Ten," slugging guitar opening, predictable verse and here we go again… well not quite, something cuts the wire and all of a sudden joyousness gets jettisoned through the window in favor of awkwardness and quick shift changes! Angry youth tempered by faith healing and the end result, an easily digestible piece of post-Hardcore posturing signaling the start of something exciting, a little unsettling and success, railed by a few avoidable road blocks, still potentially a short distance away for a surprisingly young band two albums in. Released by Epitaph Records Review by Vinnie Apicella
[va85@columbia.edu] |