Artist: Bullets and Octane
Title: Laughing in the Face of Failure
Type: Album
Label: DevCo Ent

This US band caught my attention. I’m not sure why now to be honest, but I thought I would give it a shot. This is a 2CD release; one CD called ‘Bullets’ the other ‘Octane’ – how original… oh dear, after listening to both discs, I feel they have a Use Your Illusion complex - both CDs have good tracks that could have been one great album instead of 2 discs of mismatched music. If you like Good Charlotte and Madina Lake, this is closest I know of how to compare them, image and music very much the same. ‘Harder to Breathe’ is one of the better tracks, this would do well on MTV as it is predictable and trying so hard to be angry, but it sounds a little forced. ‘All Down Hill from Here’ is quite an apt title; this is where I give up on the first CDR disc and give number 2 a go. “Number 2” is right, hmm, what more can I say, I am less than inspired. I feel a little bad cause we normally write long and insightful reviews here, but there is not much I can rave about on this release at all. There is nothing that stands out from the crowd and it’s of a style that I am not really happy with either. Too tame and SO not metal! Having said that, disc 2 is more upbeat and can get somewhere near to what The Wildhearts and Murderdolls used to do, expressed on ‘Never Going Down’. ‘Dark Lights’ actually has a guitar solo, and does sound better, a little chanting to go with the little ditty. Whilst running through some back up info on the internet, it would appear that in fact most of these songs have been released previously, maybe this is indeed a compilation of older songs with some newer ones, its quite hard to find any info out.

This is one for the Kerrang & Scuzz TV generation, not a single piece of metal running through it. Hard rock, punk rock, call it what you want, it’s commercialised for the current generation and not my bag at all. You could throw away ‘Bullets’ and keep the ‘Octane’ disc, which pretty much sums this one up!

http://www.myspace.com/bulletsandoctane

Paul Maddison

MTUK HOME