Tooth & Nail's Off the Record plays an intriguing blend of genres that is equal parts punk, skate and heavy metal. Their debut album, Remember When..., opens with the title track's two minute instrumental introduction, before lead singer Keith Allen half-sings/half-screeches:
Silent screams echo through your life
Can anyone hear of what has just become?
All alone, no time for a change
No sight for an end...
As you can see, the band treads a line lyrically, not quite Christian cliché, but also not anywhere near poetry. The lyrics are, however, better than most Christian punk and should be highly enjoyable to fans of the genre.
On a purely musical level, Remember When... starts off strong with the one-two-three punch of the title track, the infectious "Good Times," and "Fabricated Lies" but loses a lot of steam about six or seven songs into the album. Fortunately for the listener, the album is rather short (just over thirty minutes), so the monotony really doesn't have a lasting effect, and the album will make good driving music for summer vacation.
3 tocks
Other coverage for this album
Decapolis 2000Reviewed by ConradAggressive guitar hyper-punk. Let me first start off by saying they love their artificial harmonics. The guitarist grew up on metal, I'm sure. This is mainly a hyper-punk band with a metal guitarist. So you get a good combination of vocal melody and shredding guitars. The only problems I have with this album are the melodies could have been a little catchier, and the vocals were a little loud in…Decapolis 2000Reviewed by Tom BastianThis CD starts out sounding like a metal band but then quickly breaks into the good old hyper beat punk rock. Overall the CD gives us a nice mix of punk rock with metal riffs. I guess NOFX, or Millencolin would be a good comparison, but not many bands can keep up with NOFX, and I wouldn't say Off the Record could either. Nothing too original here, yet what they do, they do just fine. Probably the…Decapolis 2000Reviewed by Jim ShadyIf you are looking for a good NOFX cover band for your birthday party then these guys may be a good choice. This album was a bit deceiving in that it opened with a song that was something right out of the vaults of Megadeth or any other 80's metal band but from there the gears shifted to a Fat Records type of band. Typically all Fat Record bands have a NOFX type sound with Fat Mike type of vocals…Art for the Ears 2000Reviewed by Marco PovervestI pop this CD into the player. I play the first cut, the title-track. What I hear? Metal! The first one and half minute really got me off track because this ain't metal! This is a punk rock band! Amazing. I really thought this was metal at first. There's a hint of hardcore now and then, reminding me of Stretch Arm Strong. Off The Record is like a punkband playing speedmetal tunes while one of…Similar sounding releases
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