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Episode - Passive Aggressive

Reviewed by Pete | 22/04/2005 - 12:00AM

So many small time bands manage to make the same mistake of sounding like one another. Whilst this may not be intentional the fact of the matter is it happens, which inflicts the opinions that none of these bands have anything special about them. Sure they can play their instruments well and perform a good set (lets give them credit for that) but surely that’s about it isn’t it? In my personal opinion I think that every single band that fits into this category does have something special about them, the only difference is that they don’t have the song writing ability perfected quite yet. Some bands can play together for 6 months and come out with something that’s worthy to be on shelves around the country, whilst others take maybe even decades to find their sound and style. The boys from Episode in my opinion don’t fit into that category, but at the beginning of the Tunbridge Wells Forum’s Stable IV competition they did. I’ve only heard bits and pieces from Episodes music in the past year and from that I thought this cd was going to be another run of the mill local release (which I don’t overly enjoy). I was wrong.

Straight off the mark on the first track at 0.00 I was impressed with the hard hitting sound that they have. Musically I cannot fault there sound at all, their timing, structure and song writing has made this 5 track something which they should be proud to put their name to. All of the bass and guitar riffs sound superb, starting and ending each track with a bang. My only criticisms are on the vocals and some drum beats. Both are good but the vocals need some work and the drumming could do with a bit more variation. Other than that though Episode just need to keep writing and progressing, and their music will become even better than what they have put across already.

The first two tracks (‘Vapour Trails’ and ‘Paper Dolls’) are my favourites on the ‘Passive / Aggressive’ release. Both are extremely upbeat and in your face heavy rock that makes you want to create your own mosh pit there and then in your living room. These two tracks are overflowing with aggression (ironically) and are a good example of what local ‘heavy rock’ bands should try and accomplish. This doesn’t however mean sounding exactly like Episode, but simply writing tracks that stand out as these ones do. The passiveness of this cd comes near the end in the form of the acoustic track ‘Retrograde’. Whilst this track is still good, I don’t like it as much as the first two. Personally I prefer Episode’s aggressive side, to their passive one. The other two tracks ‘Impossible’ and ‘Spaceboy’ are good none the less, but again in my eyes not as impressive as ‘Vapour Trails’ and ‘Paper Dolls’.

I’d be interested in turning up to another one of Episode’s live shows and seeing if their performance is as good as this cd (rather than turning up late and missing their set as I’ve already experienced). If it is then this is without a doubt another local band I can safely cross off the stereotypical ‘rock’ band list…

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