Howard Alias - The Answer is Never

Household Name Records of London kindly sent us a few promo copies of recent releases for review on the site, im starting with this one-
Having only heard snippets from Southamptons Howards Alias on compilations untill now, i was intrigued to get into some new and fresh material from a band i knew very little of. I really should have taken notice of them before now, "The Answer is Never" is a fantastic album and so unconventional in so many ways. 16 tracks clocking in over 61 minutes in incorporating so many styles and original ideas from start to finish.

Reading through the list of bands H.A. have toured with does tell you a lot about thier sound, it definately conjures up ideas of Capdown, RX Bandits, Mad Caddies and Anti Flag but you could never acuse them of recycling these bands as everything on this disc is attacked with a definite sense of belonging and originality, a point im keen to enforce throughout this review.

The range of the material is almost impossible to categorise and i dont want to label this a punk record, a ska record, a rock record or anything inbetween. This is just great music. At times you can hear hints of `Muse` , `Radiohead` + `S.O.A.D` , sometimes all in the same song. But none of it ever feels like its been done on purpose to be as intricate as possible or anything like that, it just sounds natural and `right`. The fantastic W.O.R.L.D. , 40 Winks and Elizabeths Song are all examples of this at its best. I picked up on the lyric "we need to stand together not fall down apart and no, we wont wait for you" from W.O.R.L.D. as just the kind of attitude H.A. are putting across here, they dont seem to care if your with or without them and seem more than happy to create a brand of music that refuses to conform to any punk rock cliches and i salute them for that.

Its also worth pointing out (and this is something i take very seriously in any release) that the artwork is amazing and conveys the sometimes dark lyrical perspective perfectly. a resounding full marks. i`ve just been reading that the lads are in the studio recording the follow up to this record, cant wait to hear that. I`ll definatley be at the next show they do up here, i`d check em out if you aint already.

5/5

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