As It Stands are a indie punk band from the UK. Bringing their third EP ‘Follow The Madness’, the band are always improving their musical styles and concepts.
From both ‘Intro’ and Clandestine’, As It Stands already present their talent and ability for creating instrumental tracks that fit well alongside the album. Both instrumentals bring a different feel with ‘Intro’ bringing a more eerie theatrical build up while ‘Clandestine’ brings a more lighthearted approach to the instrumental side of the album.
While the majority of tracks off this album are fast paced such as ‘Tiger’ and ‘Kingpin’, acoustic track ‘Caesura’ brings a softer and atmospheric build to the album showing how As It Stands can very in styles if they want to.
However, it does seem to take a song or two for the album to properly pick up. Title track ‘Follow The Madness’ sounds as if it seems have a few timing issues with different instruments sounding out of time. Nevertheless, this does help bring a sort of ‘madness’ to the track so whether it was unintentional or on purpose is another question. ‘Venice’ slows the improvement as the track is joyful, catchy and fits together a lot better. Yet, one thing in the songs is sometimes the original vocals and ‘harmonizing’ vocals don’t always fit the best which is something to improve on.
‘Follow The Madness’ is a good attempt from As It Stands. With a bit more work and perhaps some better production and recording, As It Stands could have some pretty good songs on their hands in the future.
Rating: 5.5/10
EUPHORIA OF BREAKDOWN 