We hear a distant rumour, whispers on the wind, tales of a mighty gang of ruffians, well…a punk band, making rather huge waves over yonder, well…Peterborough to be exact. We take the opportunity when it arises to see the fabled Winning By Default at Junktion 7 and return home with indisputable evidence of their existence, well…a demo.
After witnessing a kick-ass live performance, we look forward to giving the ol’demo a good listen. Opening track ‘We’ll Have To Face It’ was immediately familiar. With it’s powerful, catchy chorus, and brilliantly engineered build-up’s and distinctive vocal patterns, we recognised it from the gig and it quickly became a favourite on the CD. This song alone displays the fact that Winning By Default are not your average bland punk band coming ten-a-penny out of a sixth form near you.
It doesn’t however, prepare you for the fact that this lot are only 15. The only thing that would potentially give this away, assuming you hadn’t seen them live, would be the frontman’s voice. It has a slight adolescent twinge to it which will obviously change with time, but leaves nought to be desired when it comes to power and emotion, without ever reaching a scream, his voice remains smooth and ringing with slight emo influences throughout the EP.
Voice and stature aside, the sheer maturity in the music and the lyrics is impressive, they make their point eloquently and with sophistication in way of thinking, They aren’t afraid to make it a bit difficult for themselves either, their ability to inject flawlessly timed energy releases into their sound and their fearlessness when it comes to putting a little more thought into sounding a bit different, sets them apart, steering them towards the more complex and melodic regions of the likes of AFI.
Track 2 ‘With You’ kicks straight in with a tearing guitar riff and fast punky drumming. This is the shortest and most simple song on the Ep, but as the demo continues you see the afore mentioned complexity emphasised. Tracks 3 and 4 are the real emotional numbers in which the vocalist comes into his own and they’re musical ability is highlighted, with plenty of tempo and mood changes, big choruses and power-building drums.
Winning By Default have to be one of the most exciting bands around at the moment, easily surpassing their notable youth in terms of capability. You’ll find it pretty hard to remove this demo from you CD player once it’s worked its way in there, by the time you’ve heard it for the third time, you’ll be singing along and dancing around you bedroom. Everytime it’s played you hear something else that will intensify your enthusiasm for these guys. It’s an aural feast for any punk/emo fan.
Review by Gaz
