If you’re in a band called POSER and describe yourself as ‘Emo/Hardcore’ you’ve either got to be pulling on the strings of irony or exceptionally good. Unfortunately I get the impression they’re neither. As brutal as that may sound, I have to be honest. I wouldn’t even place hardcore in the same sentence as them as this stuff is pretty soft. It’s essentially just no thrills emo-pop-punk
Whilst musically they’re not too bad, as in their competence is definitely on show, it’s the vocals and lyrics that really let this 6 track release down. I know it’s fashionable in certain circles to have a really bad singer but it’s not a particularly redeeming feature in my eyes, I can take a bad voice but not if it’s regularly going out of tune. At least he is American though and not just trying to sound that way.
What annoys me about this CD though is that it just sounds so fake and recycled; there’s just not one original thing about it. It pays tribute to all the usual suspects; BLINK, NFG, SENSES FAIL et al and borrows riffs and vocal melodies on the way. There’s even a sample of some rain in between a couple of the tracks. At best it sounds mediocre but there’s just so many bands doing it already with so much more creativity and flair.
Whilst this E.P/mini album isn’t that great, I feel the band have got potential as they can obviously handle their respective instruments. I think they just need to find their sound and then develop it a bit more; influences are fine but they shouldn’t become templates, or at least not as blatantly. They just need to try and break the mould a bit or find something to set them back from an already saturated field.
www.poserband.com
Mike