Beyond Reasonable Doubt - Beyond Reasonable Doubt Album Review

Beyond Reasonable Doubt
Self-Titled
Album Review

Little known punk rock outfits from Surrey don't really sell themselves do they? But more importantly- should they? Well expecting this to fall someway short of something very short indeed, I popped the anonymous number into my ears…

Ok so this is hardly an awe-inspiring album, but Beyond Reasonable Doubt certainly have a firm grasp of how to write a catchy chorus; 'Alcohol Related', for all its dire riffage does above all else make you want to jump up and down for no reason.

Unfortunately though, what Beyond Reasonable Doubt can produce in hooks is lacking even more so in original initiative. The strung out vocal harmonies and inevitable post-chorus breakdown seem to replicate themselves on every track with an awful precision; 'Blinded by a Thousand Reasons' and 'Wasted Game' are almost exactly the same song. It's obvious that the band's influences are stuck to far too rigidly. For all the express-train rhythms, angst-ridden vocals and muted-guitar verses Beyond Reasonable Doubt can throw on tracks such as 'Narcolepsy', this sounds like the useless eye of the punk-rock storm – a vacuum of tracks aspiring to be something by Brand New, Yellowcard, or Blink 182 Dude Ranch songs that were never written.

Sure Beyond Reasonable Doubt will make you dream of American college in the 90s, getting your nose pierced and Saved By The Bell, but then a Green Day cover would do just as nicely. What really separates the legions of Beyond Reasonable Doubts from those who have breached the UK charts in the last couple of years (Fall Out Boy for example) is the latter's ability to draw new energy and a new sound from influences, not blindly trying to replicate them.

3/10

Jamie Curtis