Three members of what used to be 40Grit, one member of what used to be Skinlab unite in The Miserables. Chris Anderson, Andy Green and Ryan Healy, guitarist, drummer and bassist of 40Grit heritage, guitarist Glen Telford handles the Skinlab legacy. I have not named a singer yet. Is this then merely an instrumental effort? No, after quite a search they found a guy in Canada, by the name of Denton Bramley and we do not know him. In my case, my anticipation for this demo was very high. I found Skinlab to be a fantastic band with a great, powerful sound and a singer with a devastatingly forceful voice. And 40Grit, although they started out sounding like Machinehead a bit on their first album, their sophomore record ‘Nothing To Remember’ was the best and most heart wrenching album of 2003, but as I always sensed, most people just didn’t get it. The turnaround that is, call those people stupid, because this missed quite something. So then, given the anticipation, did this demo give me the idea that indeed 40Grit and Skinlab are reborn into something great? Results are inconclusive. Read on.

Of course, a lot of the power of Skinlab and 40Grit, lay in their respective singers, and both of them are not in this band, which leaves a lot of responsibility for mister Bramley. Of the four songs on this demo, he does have a good start, he sings with conviction and a definite amount of talent, diversity, that kind of stuff. The riffs and drums are pretty all right in ‘Not Normal’ only in this song, you hear that even though instrumentally there getting close to where they need to be, they don’t quite make it.
In the start of the next song, ‘A Letter To God’, the Skinlab influence is very evident, it seems to become a hard-hitting metal song, but from the second part on, the 40Grit influence takes over. Then comes the chorus: a very catchy, somewhat sappy, yet well done clean sung part -could be Chris Anderson too of course-, bringing back memories to ‘Nothing To Remember’. After the chorus it’s kind of a mess for about thirty seconds, before they find their form back.

Well, kind of. The chorus at least, is good, they should have emphasised on that, created the song around it. They didn’t really, and therefore, the song only succeeds for fifty percent. A lot of potential nonetheless.
In this song, we hear Bramley sound kind of like Paul Mendoza of Unjust and kind of like old school 40Grit. Pretty all right.
‘When Pigs Fly’, does pretty much the same as the first two songs on the demo, nearly succeeding and such, with touches of brilliance here and there, but in the end never really taking off. There’s a feel of 40Grit and to a lesser extent Skinlab, with a different singer. Now, we also hear Denton Bramley grunt. He does a pretty good job. The last song ‘One Small Mistake’, has a great intro. Double bass drums, sneering guitars, a nice build-up to the rest of the song. Off to a great start, only to trip over the first hurdle. All of a sudden a catchy chorus thrown our way, not good, then they follow that chorus up with a fantastic post-chorus part, with low riffs, grunting and simple but effective drums: fantastic! Thereafter the so so chorus is back, but after the chorus, the fantastic post-chorus shines again. However, a minute later, the fun is over. End of demo. What the hell did I just hear? What to think?

Well, as stated, it was difficult to form some final thoughts on this demo. Shreds of greatness, shreds of sub-standard. I give them the benefit of the doubt, the benefit of the legacy, the benefit of the shreds of greatness and the conviction they will capitalise on those strong points. An afternoon, when at work, it thought of the following sentence, to sum this demo up: “It’s like Tim Williams’ (ex-singer of Vision Of Disorder) comeback with Bloodsimple this year, it kind of has the same flavour, but it doesn’t taste as good”.
However, I’m pretty sure they’ll get the ingredients straightened out pretty soon, and prove their worth (on a full-length effort).