Jesus this is bad. I hate to slag bands off – contrary to popular belief it’s not something I enjoy – but my ears have literally bled to death. Imagine Blink 182‘s ‘Cheshire Cat’ era, make the songs, vocals and level of musicianship worse and you’re about at Gimble‘s level. The vocals are an acquired taste – but for me they never make it above an annoying whine. I could hardly make out any lyrics he sings at all. The drums are two-paced – slow and fast – while the thre-chord riffs wear on you after a couple of tracks. Put simply, 13 songs is about eight too many.
The problem Grimble have is they are trying far too hard to be Blink 182. The riff towards the end of ‘Last Thing On My Mind’ has been lifted straight from Tom DeLonge’s guitar and it’s not that only familiar thing you’ll hear. On several occasions the band borrow heavily from late 90s pop-punk acts and it just sounds horribly dated. On top of that, the production really doesn’t suit the style of music the band want to play. Pop-punk of this type needs to be glossy, not out of time and sung badly. Had this been an EP it would have been more tolerable, but 13 songs is far, far too much. Back to the drawing board lads…
Paul