The good, the bad and the ugly face!
American rockers, Resoldered, have a polished sound that takes elements of Punk and mixes it with some good old fashioned Hard Rock. This is the debut album from the band that has toured almost non-stop over the past two years, since being conceived in the singer, Dave’s garage.
First track, ‘You Failed’ is bordering on Punk rock with the high-tempo and a handful of feverously played chords. Then we have a strange couple of songs whereby one is the slow intro to the other (‘Not Impossible’). This is bordering on Pop/Punk which just falls a few harmonies short, although makes a great sing-a-long track. Next song, ‘Chapped’ however, has deep chugging guitars that wouldn’t sound out of place in a Stoner Rock band, it’s almost a coming together of Fu-Manchu and The Offspring.
Most of the songs here are high-octane, written to make you want to use up your energy like the great, ‘Everybody In Between’, that starts off like a shotgun and refuses to let up the pace throughout with no apologies, and this carries on with, ‘Solder Me’, which has elements of Alkaline Trio in it. Then we have, ‘Media State (Finding A Voice)’ that sounds like a more Punky, Queens Of The Stone Age, and some great straight up Punk in the NOFX-esque, ‘Can’t Stand’ follows on.
‘Smooth Run’ chugs along nicely without standing out, whilst the greatly titled, ‘Ugly Face’ sounds like a mid-tempo Offspring track, and ‘A Crusher’ could be a classic Vandals song with some fuzzy-guitars. ‘Draw The Line’ promises a lot with some nice Metal guitars but doesn’t quite live up to the promises. However last song, ‘I Won’t Die For You’ is a great tongue-in-cheek song of acoustic guitar and vocals, and I think that this sums up the band well. When they are kicking back and not taking things too seriously then they come across well, however in some of the tracks you get the feeling that they are trying a little too hard, and as a result there is a middle-of-the-road song that comes out that is neither Punk or Hard Rock.
All in all this is a good album. The pluses are that when the band are on form then the songs are great, filled with Punk swagger and balls, however there are times when they sound a little like other bands, and not when these aforementioned bands are at their best. ‘Everybody In Between’ is worth checking out, and I have a feeling that this will be built on for a better and more well-rounded follow up in the future.