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Depth - Situation Fulfilled

Norwich quartet Depth shows signs of promise and potential on their debut release ‘Situation Fulfilled’.

The British boys, who signed to Rising Records in 2008, have created nearly 50 minutes of playful rock, powerpop and even pop-punk. Although the lads describe their music as post-hardcore on their website, screams and growls are few and far between on this record.

‘Situation Fulfilled’ is a decent debut that is bursting with catchy choruses, bouncy beats and galloping guitars. The four-piece are talented musicians who definitely have a knack for songwriting, tracks such as ‘Burning Pages’ and ‘No One Sings For Second Place’ are perfect examples of this.

However upon listening to the record it feels as though the band haven’t fully found their sound yet. The rockers are reminiscent of The Blackout and Lostprophets, but struggle to put their own twist to the music, meaning sometimes they just sound like a cover band - this is particularly noticeable on ‘Built By One’ and ‘History Games’.

When the quartet do attempt to mix things up and make the sound their own by including a number of different genres and styles in the songs, they fail miserably. It’s nice to know Depth like to experiment, but ultimately a lot of tracks on the record come across as a jumbled mess. ‘The Story So Far’, ‘Get Up And Go’ and ‘Carcrash Conscience’ illustrate this point perfectly.

It is frustrating as the band are capable of constructing strong tunes, as mentioned earlier ‘Burning Pages’ and ‘No One Sings For Second Place’ are proof of this.

Hopefully Depth will come to realise that you don’t always need to over-complicate things for a song to sound good.

The fundamentals are definitely visible on a ‘Situation Fulfilled’ and despite it being a little overwhelming at times the record does have some solid tracks.

The quartet still have a lot to learn, but chances are when it’s time to record their second album, Depth will be a lot more comfortable in their own skin and have fully discovered their sound.