Birmingham Trio Templeton Pek have been at the peripheries of the mainstream for years, watching with presumed bemusement as an endless stream of British bands ascend to stardom on the back of more fashionable, but far weaker material than theirs. If 2013’s ‘Signs’ represented a lane change, consciously sanding the edges of their heavy but hugely melodic punk rock to attract a wider audience, then ‘New Horizons’ is the sound of a band dropping a gear and pushing the accelerator to the floor.
The slicker sound the band displayed on ‘Signs’ is once again present, but refined further: the riffs that much sharper, the songs more tightly constructed. While still fundamentally a punk rock record, ‘New Horizons’ is permeated with hardcore and metal influences like mould in a slab of Stilton. In a good way. Distinctive vocals, passionately strained vocals manage to steer clear of the tropes present in so much punk while harmonies soar above buzzing guitars without ever veering into clichĂ©d pop-punk territory.
When Templeton Pek are at their best, on tracks like ‘Damage Control’, the songs are heavy and heartfelt; double-time drums and snarling, distorted bass lines piling in between gigantic choruses that stick in the head for days. Something about the sound of ‘New Horizons’ recalls 90s emotional hardcore like Grade, given a contemporary polish. Elsewhere, though, there’s more forgettable fare. ‘Lost On You’, for example, while redeemed by a somewhat unexpected middle-eight, is by-the-book melodic punk which sits disappointingly next to the much stronger material with which the album leads.
The band pull a nifty trick on the listener, too –  building up a dark atmosphere through ten tracks of pummelling drums, minor chords and lyrics about hopelessness and destruction before ending with the surprisingly uplifting ‘Great Divide’. It’s markedly different from the other songs here and indicative either of a potential future move towards more traditionally anthemic rock, or simply of knowing the right note on which to end an album. Either way it’s effective and immediately cleanses the palate of some of the more generic moments which come before it. Overall, ‘New Horizons’ is one of the better British rock releases this year; tuneful enough for the pop-metal crowd, fast-paced enough for the punks and with a refreshing lack of pretension.
ROB BARBOUR