Swound! - Into The Sea

When all’s said and done, the only major complaint with Swound!’s album ‘Into The Sea’ is perhaps something overly picky – that the bass sits a little high in the mix and washes out the heavier passages. Besides that, what you get from ‘Into The Sea’ is an album of grunge rock that evokes Ash and Weezer in equal measures and sticks to a relatively consistent level of quality. ‘Your Kids Are Gonna Love It’ sets the tone for the record, all geek references and power-pop chorus, and apart from the notable highs – like natural single ‘In My Head’ – this template, like the standard of song, doesn’t change.

It may not have the technicality of the wave of math-rock that’s currently sweeping through the alternative underground, but Swound! carry with them that rare righteousness of the band committed to doing exactly what they want, on their own terms, and fuck what everybody else thinks. Though it may be early days, bands like Biffy Clyro and Dananananaykroyd have shown that such an attitude can bear fruit, and though this first album offers nothing unexpected, they’ve real potential to grow gently into a band that could challenge for the coveted status of being a no-frills rock band that matter.