OUTL4W
OUTL4W
(Destiny)
Scary kids, getting it right.
4/5
It's a sure sign that you're getting old when you're at a festival telling a friend a few facts about the band on stage, he asks “Do you know them, then?”, and you're forced to admit “No, but I do know their Dad”. The Dad in question is John Bentham, who ran the Jettisoundz video company back in the ‘80s, and now oversees many of Cherry Red's punk DVD releases, and the fruits of his loins are Bobby, Will, and Jack, who along with Stuart Newburn make up the frighteningly youthful Outl4w. At that festival, Blackpool 2006, the band tore up the stage, no doubt putting the wind up many more seasoned performers, and since then they've gone from strength to strength, touring far and wide and putting out a string of fine releases. However, there was always a niggling doubt that the novelty of their precociousness may have had at least something to do with the support of the media, and that it must eventually wear off. Now that the band are weary old war-horses, four years into their career and well into their teens (!), the moment of truth has arrived with their first album. But happily, this album, though brief, is the goods, 27-odd minutes of furious, exuberant punk rock, just the right mixture of old school, hardcore and tinges of metal, the stand-out track being joyous singalong 'Sonic Youth'.
Shane Baldwin