An ‘emo’ band with screaming? What will they think of next?! To be fair to the Worcester trio Debate Escape, while their music may be about as original as the other gazillion demos currently sitting in my review pile, the level of musicianship is pretty high for a band with an average age of 17. But being able to play your instruments sadly means nothing when you’re just recycling the same old stuff. The sad fact is that this could literally be any of a million UK bands that you see in a local venue, week in, week out. There’s no spark and no originality here, just a re-hash of what was popular earlier this year.
‘Jigsaws, Thoughts and your Fingerprints’ is a three tracker that was self-recorded and released by the band. To be fair, bearing all that in mind this isn’t too bad for a first release. The song structures, for what they are, are solid and well constructed and everything is in the right place. But that’s half the problem really – the screams are clichéd and obvious and while the three-piece can make quite a din for just three youngsters, the guitar riffs are literally stolen from bands such as Finch or Senses Fail.
‘The Cautious Killers’ is probably the record’s best track, a song that may be borrowed from a stack of more famous bands but the vocals are good and varied and the structure itself is promising. Debate Escape show enough here in three songs to suggest they will no doubt improve and progress as a band, but they need to move away from the usual suspects if they want their music to be heard further afield than their home town.
www.debateescape.co.uk
Paul