It's gritty, grungy and relentlessly in-your-face. It's rawly recorded and sloppily performed. Its production values involve pressing record and pressing stop. It's all over in about six minutes. In other words, the demo EP from Melbourne-based Outright is exactly what one should look for in DIY hardcore – a lasting first impression that demonstrates precisely what this band is about and why they have what it takes to stand apart from their contemporaries. To paraphrase The Whitlams, there's a hardcore band on every corner when it comes to the bulging Australian scene – so why should you care about Outright?
For one thing, Outright are not tangled up in any wave of fads, whether it's the kind of teenage angst that you probably should have left behind when you deleted your MySpace profile or the useless inclusion of a synth player (a bit like how every nu-metal band used to have a DJ). It's about as classic an attempt at hardcore punk as you're likely to find, all churning,distorted guitar tones and skittering double-time drums. What's more is that the band don't have time to be whiners – there's aggression, sure, but it's not baseless and gratuitously brought up. This is the kind of music that doesn't need – nor event want – to sit around feeling sorry for itself. “Gotta be the change I want to see,” screeches vocalist Jelena Goluza (yeah, it's a woman – big woop, wanna fight about it?) in opener “Bricks.” “All possibilities in front of me, proving that it can be done.” This demo doesn't have time for bulls
hit – literally, even if it wanted to; each song averages about two minutes.
Having throwbacks to “golden era” hardcore certainly doesn't exactly make Outright the most original band, but you've absolutely no foot to stand on were you to label them as uninspired. This is a brisk, bulls
hit-free demo that's well worth investigating to anyone who's dismissed Australian hardcore as all bogans and boardshorts. Pay attention.
Stream/download the demo here: http://www.reverbnation.com/outright
