published: 5 /
10 /
2008
Label:
Rebel Youth Records
Format: CD
Old-fashioned, ballsy old school punk on impressive debut album from Toronto-based band, Sound and Fury
Review
My brother thinks Sound and Fury have copied the Van Halen logo. I’ve compared both, and it looks like he’s got a point. At the very least, they’re playing with fire in the copyright infringement stakes. This shouldn’t influence your thoughts about how they might sound though. There is no 'Jump' on this album. Be as happy or sad about that as you will be, I’m not judging you either way.
Having said that, Sound and Fury remind me of a hundred other bands who haven’t been producing an awful lot of music this side of the millennium. Somewhat Ramones-y, a little bit Skid Row, via AC/DC and Alice Cooper, Sound and Fury are punk in the old fashioned sense, but without taking themselves too seriously. They’re ballsy sounding and that would usually be annoying, but somehow they make it work.
The cover art on the album provokes images of a hardcore band, but Sound and Fury have produced a lot more fun than any hardcore bands would have done. If you close your eyes, you could be convinced it was 1980. Titles like ‘School’s Out’, ‘18’ and ‘High School Hotbox’ attest to this, although you get the feeling that Sound and Fury might be a few years too old to be getting away with writing songs about such subjects.
Lead singer Luke Metcalf gets away with it because of his breezy sounding vocal, and drummer Chris Avalos creates the steady sort of beat needed to ground a band like Sound and Fury. The tunes are upbeat without selling out, and punk rock without getting into a stereotype. Musically, Sound and Fury can’t really be faulted in what they’re doing. If you already know you’re a fan of this genre, I’d say you had nothing to lose and a new favourite band to gain by listening to them. If you’re not already a fan... I’d still say you had nothing to lose. As Metcalfe himself puts it, “that's what we're all about, creating no-bullshit Rock N' Roll to get down and dirty and party your ass off to!” I think that as aims go, this one sounds pretty cool. This album goes a long way to achieving it; Sound and Fury have the potential to be huge.
Track Listing:-
1
School's Out
2
Teenage Rampage
3
Can't Get Enough
4
18
5
Bad Touch
6
Night Of The Ghouls
7
High School Hotbox
8
Runaway Love
9
Supercharged
10
The Stranger
11
Hellhound