Artist: Near Miss
Album: Testing the Ends of What They'll Put Up With
Label: Takeover Records
Tracks: 12
Length: 35:04
Review By: John Durkee

This album should have been a lot better than it is. The music has a great sound, as it is hard rock and at times metal inspired punk rock with a tiny pinch of pop. The record starts dark, heavy and fast with, “Serious Mess,” but falls flat on its face as the off key and out of tune vocals come in. The album is littered with tracks just like this first one, but the rest of the album sounds far more enjoyable than this opener and makes one wonder if the label should have just had their vocalist stay in the studio a little longer, or use pro tools or something to fix this obvious flaw.

The album has some enjoyable moments, the biggest being the song, “Step Aside,” a song included on previous releases, indicating the band is banking on this song bringing more new fans with more exposure. This is fairly common to the music industry, and I can see it being a successful move for the band as they have a sound that would fit in well at Warped Tour and Hot Topic, and yet attract some of the more hardcore punk fans as well.

Overall, the vocals are what will make or break this band. For some it won’t matter at all as the raw sound of the music may allow some off vocals and perhaps even add to how “punk” the band is considered. At the same time, there will be those that will find the off-key and out of tune vocal melodies and harmonies to be exasperating. I would put myself in the latter group.