20 May 2013
Ritalin- Roguetown
16 May 2007 // A review by johnsoncraigsbc
Ritalin is reminiscent of Metallica in the ‘kill em all’ days, especially with guitaring like that in ‘The Haunting’. But apart from some good moments, the rest of the mid chorus strumming started to hurt my ears a bit.
You see the thing with amateur punk rock is that if you don’t have a large fan base it is hard to get far in the industry, and singing like that in ‘Losing Out’ doesn’t do you any favours either.
Huge ups for the album artwork though, thanks to Nico Madill. I’m not too sure how well it compliments the music, but the booklet inside the cover certainly has a dark and underlying theme to it, which is voiced through the lyrics of the music, but not so well through the musicianship.
With a combined photo of god knows what on the back of the album, it’s hard to take this band seriously, but they do seem to be hardworking.
Personally, I would love to see this band break away from the restrictions that I feel are holding them back from producing more musically intense pieces. Instead of keeping each song to the classic verse, chorus, bridge mechanism, it would do them a world of good to step up the technicality of the guitar solos, and then produce more of them. Otherwise, I fear this band will fade into the back ground along with all the other heavy bands we’ve seen bestow the underground scene in this country.
6/10
Craig Johnson
Ritalin is reminiscent of Metallica in the ‘kill em all’ days, especially with guitaring like that in ‘The Haunting’. But apart from some good moments, the rest of the mid chorus strumming started to hurt my ears a bit.You see the thing with amateur punk rock is that if you don’t have a large fan base it is hard to get far in the industry, and singing like that in ‘Losing Out’ doesn’t do you any favours either.
Huge ups for the album artwork though, thanks to Nico Madill. I’m not too sure how well it compliments the music, but the booklet inside the cover certainly has a dark and underlying theme to it, which is voiced through the lyrics of the music, but not so well through the musicianship.
With a combined photo of god knows what on the back of the album, it’s hard to take this band seriously, but they do seem to be hardworking.
Personally, I would love to see this band break away from the restrictions that I feel are holding them back from producing more musically intense pieces. Instead of keeping each song to the classic verse, chorus, bridge mechanism, it would do them a world of good to step up the technicality of the guitar solos, and then produce more of them. Otherwise, I fear this band will fade into the back ground along with all the other heavy bands we’ve seen bestow the underground scene in this country.
6/10
Craig Johnson
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About Ritalin
Formed in 1997, while still in fourth form at high school, the band has consistently shown their passion and enthusiasm for playing together. Ritalin have played everywhere from small halls to big music festivals such as the 2003 Big Day Out.
Ritalin do things the old fashioned way with a commitment to constant touring and quality releases, taking their brand of fast paced melodic hardcore to any city that will have them.
Visit the muzic.net.nz Profile for Ritalin
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