There is an abundance of punk bands tearing up the American and British shores lately, yet it is rare to come across a fresh group from mainland Europe. Primetime Failure hail from Germany, and it is their time to put their home country on the punk map.
The quartet cram eight snappy bursts of old-school skate punk into an incredibly brief sixteen-minute period; blink and you’ll miss it. They may be catergorised in some places as “pop-punk”, but it is not a fair distinction, instead the group provide a modern spin on punk legends NOFX and Rancid.
Setting off with an incredibly quick pace and wasting no time in getting stuck into the album, the group begin with ‘Home’. Granted, there are plenty of engaging and captivating melodic hooks and riffs, but it doesn’t quite stand out from the pack. It is clear the group are influenced a great deal by the 90’s punk sound, as they vocalise routine punk issues about life and leaving it all behind, taking the listener back to a time of cassettes and mixtapes, evident in the tongue-in-cheek closer ‘Stuck in the 90’s’
There is a grittier approach with Primetime Failure that does benefit them massively, but the variances in their sound seems to cease there as they emphasise on the already familiar, speedy chord progressions. Despite this, the breakdowns in tracks such as ‘Waiting’ and ‘Time’ are incredibly intricate and bring the listener’s attention back to their sound.
There is potential with this group, they display heaps of energy and clearly know how to get their point across in rapid movements. This debut may not display much variance from track to track, but there is plenty of room to still grow and find their own niche in such an overridden, established genre.
2/5
‘Home’ by Primetime Failure is out now on Disconnect Disconnect Records.
Primetime Failure links: Website|Facebook|Twitter|Bandcamp
Words by Jess Boswell (@j_lboswell)
