Oddly enough, while I wouldn’t call bands like Hot Water Music or Kid Dynamite “beginner bands” (as in the kind of stuff someone gets into at a young age before finding the “really good stuff”), yet there’s practically a whole genre that focuses on that stuff as a prime influence. This falls under that territory (coarse vocals, with some “hardcore” moments despite being fairly melodic all around), and while, admittedly, I was ready to blow it off, I didn’t hate it by the end of the few songs here, thanks to some ‘ricks (what I’ve dubbed “guitar riff tricks”) that I tend to enjoy.
–joe (Neutral Territory)