Album Review: The Arteries, OK Pilot, Brothers and Bangers - Brits Abroad EP

The “Brits Abroad” 4 way split 7inch was released by Specilist Subject Records this past October to celebrate the 4 bands heading for the big US of A to play The Fest 8 in Gainsville, Florida.

The record is kicked off by The Arteries in some style, with their old school punk rock filling my speakers, this band know how to write a decent, catchy, hard hitting punk song. The only real shame is the quite unnecessary abuse that comes flying at the listener at the end of the song…no need.

Next we have OK Pilot, and at coming in at just a shade over a minute its all over before you know it. The band show much of the same as The Arteries only this time with some nice 'woahs' and harmonies thrown in for good measure, shame the track only really starts gaining any real momentum right at the end then stops abruptly, no abuse this time though is a welcome bonus.

‘Maths is my middle name’ by Brothers is another short offering. Once again this is pure punk by numbers, it doesn’t really draw you in although the band do show some nice skills when their vocalist moves away from the mike and they really rock out towards the end of the song.

The job of EP closer goes to Bangers who instantly show themselves to be the most competent of the 4 bands on offer. Although offering straight up punk rock once again they show much more versatility and some nice guitar and drumwork throughout.

With only The Arteries venturing past 2 minutes I get the impression that this release wasn’t high on the agenda of priorities for some of these bands. None of them offer anything truly memorible and I’d be surprised if Subject Specialist Records came even close to selling their 500 ‘limited’ copies of this release. I hope I’m wrong, for their sake.

2/5

Matt Buck