outbound - in my defense

Outbound 

In My Defense
self-released; 2013

3.6 out of 5

By Ethan Skeleton

They say pop punk isn’t dead. Outbound couldn’t agree more. They’re a five-piece band located in Fitchburg, MA. They don’t have much to say as of yet since the band only formed roughly ten months ago. But in that short time, they’ve played great shows at renowned venues in the Massachusetts area. Outbound is made up of friends who grew up together and decided to go for it. They weren’t content with the 9 -5 normality looming after school so they took to the road and the studio to put their dreams to use and see what happened.

“Get A Grip” sounds a lot like “Everlong” by the Foo Fighters, but I like it. If that’s a sign of things to come I’m all right with that. Outbound walks a good balance of clean guitar with the usual rebellious distortion. The potential leaking through mid range production reminds me of a little band called New Found Glory. I heard they did okay for themselves. It’s hard not to hear a little Nirvana twinged with Taking Back Sunday as well not to mention the vocal delivery of Say Anything.

“So Sorry” adopts a more Sublime guitar sound while “Keep Climbing” has a great garage punk sound. I especially like the bass level and the snare tuning. This track could maybe benefit from sticking to the straight hard rocking of the chorus and bypass the quicksand tendency of double time beats. “Ember” eases you in with a slick bass line running up and down the neck. Just when you think it could have had R&B potential the guitar and drums trounce in and it falls back into the same pulsing foundation that is punk rock. This EP is recommended.

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