The Sheffield Scenester

First....a little about the band:

‘Scrim’s’ Myspace describes their music as "heavy rock with a variety of influences", although we have never been able to agree (with anyone) on who we sound like. A good place to start as we are free to make up our own minds, I suppose it’s just a case of ‘Suck it and see’..

Intro:
I played the album, starting with the first tune on the website, I instantly had a massive feeling of nostalgia and a flash back of playing tony hawks pro skater. Not a bad thing given the genre or the sound the band portrays in this EP. Looking into this I began flicking through some old THPS tracks on the Youtube and suddenly it hit me why I massively wanted to pull the old ps1 out of the cupboard and perform some insanely massive grinds on top of some building whilst collecting the letters S.K.A.T.E. The singer (Alek) has a very similar vocal timbre to that of Dryden Mitchell. Ok, your saying, who’s he? ‘Alien Ant Farm’s’ Vocalist I would have you know.

Definitely not a bad first impression, given that Dryden Mitchell was an excellent vocalist, but I’m sure these guys probably won’t approve of the reference, based on AAF’s coolness factor... If you think about it though, they were a decent band...

The songs:

-Capture the flag.
This is a thoroughly enjoyable track. A starter for 10. Introducing the guitar and being quickly followed up by the vocal. This builds to the crunching sound of the rest of the band. You instantly get what these guys are about from this tune. Rolling guitars, bass and drums broken up with thrashed fills and attention grabbing stops. The title ‘Capture the flag’ brilliantly encompassing and providing potential background music to a perfect situation of playing a big team battle on ‘Halo’ with your mates and a few beers.

-So calculated.
The music in this song is, at the heavier points, reminiscent of a little known West Virginian band ‘Karma To Burn’ and the vocals portray the viewpoint of a boy who meets a girl and his thoughts about her. This song contains a good grinding riff and a breakdown of instruments in-between, also a slight overtone of ‘lynard skynard’ throughout, a sparkly little number.

-Five years wasted.
Another pounding rock tune, possibly drawing in some elements from the band ‘Papa Roach’ but also little bits from other bands in this genre, maybe even ‘Millencolin’ or ‘Foo fighters’. After listening through these first three songs you definitely get the feeling for the band and they do take on their own sound within the Alt Rock genre. I’m not entirely sure what the ‘five years wasted’ lyrics are aimed at. Weather this be a broken relationship or possibly political.

-Puppet and strings.
Takes a slightly darker angle on the band’s sound and starts off lightly with some picked guitar and muted stabs. This progresses, building little by little and then stops letting a guitar break through prompting us of what will come later in the mix. The song then continues building using this break again to separate the verses. Penultimately a modified version guitar riff comes through after the rest of the instruments drop off. From this point the music builds again till the song reaches the finale, at the pinnacle of the track the guitar bass and drums stab out a passage then disengages. Out of all the songs this one shows off Scrim’s control of their sound.

-Burning on the inside.
To be honest.....I’m not sure about this one. The main bulk of the song is again enjoyable and in the same vain as the first three, I do feel the intro lets it down a little....I really want the two vocalists to let go a bit here and belt out the ‘this is no good for you’ line before kicking in, given that this is Scrims Title Track for the EP...to me initially it doesn’t strike a chord like I imagined it would and it’s a real shame. This said the rest of the song Prevails and is again a nice tune reminding me of some Early Green day. The guitar also has some cool little ‘Guns ‘n’ Roses’ elements.

-Untitled
I do like this one a lot. Apart from the title giving it away, I’d like to imagine the band just settling in the studio and deciding to commit a short track down to tape which would show off their talents and get them in the mood before performing the rest of the record. I especially like the little muted notes after the guitar plays its first sequence which are similar to the sound on ‘System of a down’s’ - ‘Toxicity’. Excellent guitar work and a very nice flow just guide you through the song from beginning to end. It all seems a little bit freer than the other songs on this EP and I like that, good work guys.

-Sunday skies
The guitar starts using the same chords as ‘untitled’. A nice idea as ‘untitled’ serves as a sort of prelude to a much heavier song. A nice idea would have been to put untitled at the start of the EP and finish with ‘Sunday Skies’ as a reprise but either works well. A big finishing tune with a big sound.

For the Record:
It would be interesting to find out where these guys recorded this and whether this is an in house job or all done within a professional studio. I state so because I do feel the mixing has been slightly detrimental to certain elements of the recording. The drums overheads tend to be a little high in the mix and in turn the guitar has been turned up. This leads to the vocalist having a bit of a battle to cut through the mix and a lot of his words get drowned out. As previously stated he has a really good voice and I would really like to listen to what he has to say!

The Drums (Jon) in the recording are that of a well practised percussionist who performs some excellent fills and break downs whilst keeping strict tempo and control on rhythms.

I feel I couldn’t give an accurate portrayal of the bass in this review as it seems to be quite low in the mix. I did have a go at cranking the EQ up on the amplifier to have a listen to the bassist (Dave) specifically and it seems there is a lot of low end rumble and not a lot of twang. Which even given he is playing a 5 string (yes, I went on the website and checked, how sad am I?) doesn’t mean you can’t achieve this in recording, even with as little as making sure you have got fresh new strings before heading to the studio.....Ok I’m not saying Dave didn’t, but I really would like to hear a little rattle and twang as he hits the notes just to give the record a little more beef and soul. I’m sure no one would disagree as this guy sure can play!

The Guitar played by John, is a mixed bag of heavy thrashed chord and muted riffs. He will then at times extend through to jarring solos and some off the cuff sweeps and taps. He performs to a high standard throughout the record and provides a lot of energy within the mix.

Final Thoughts:
For a recording at this level it is what you would want and expect, a good representation of the band’s sound and an excellent guide as to what to expect if you see these guys live. The Overall feeling given is that of a proficient Rock and roll band doing what they do best. ‘Scrim’ will be playing Sheffield’s ‘O2 Academy’ on the 25th of November, but will also be making appearances in Leeds and London before then.

If you can wait for that then check out their Myspace or visit their website:

Words by Simon Ellis