Imagine growing up listening to bands like Snapcase, deciding not to take any notice of what made them great, and making your band a cross between any random pop-metal act, Atreyu and the dregs of 90s nu-metal. You won’t end up too far away from Waterdown.
This review is a little late in the day for a CD that came out last year, but if you wipe a shit-stained finger down your wall it won’t disappear after a week. Perhaps that analogy is too harsh for this band, as the musicianship can sort of be described as ‘competent’, but I can’t help thinking that the sound they’re aiming for belongs on a Madden soundtrack sandwiched between Fall Out Boy and whatever hip hop artist it is that emo kids like these days.
Here a few specifics for you: unimaginative breakdowns, hilariously clichéd vocal intros and screams, and drum production which often doesn’t suit the rest of the CD at all (see ‘Chewing on Lies’). This is probably the point where I should make a pun linking ‘watering down’ and the relative merits of this record, but I’m not a Kerrang! reviewer. Oooh, scathing. Pick it up in a bargain bin if you know all the words to ‘Right Side Of The Bed’, else I’d give it a touring caravan-sized berth.