Cut It OutHaving already seen Cut It Out! live a handful of times, while also owning their demo and the split 7" with No More Fear, I'm pretty familiar with this band. For some reason, however, I have not caught them live since their tour in support of the split release a couple years back. So has a lot changed from this South Jersey band in the past 2 years?
Yes and no! They still play the same style of thrash, skate-punk, but have also become better musicians then I last remember. This works both to the band's advantage and to their disadvantage. The interchanging of fast thrash and slow tempo hardcore breakdowns, work for the most part. It in fact helps CIO! stand slightly away from other skate-punk or hardcore bands, but it doesn't always benefit each particular song. At times the incohesive nature of a few tracks stall the momentum of the full-length. These moments aren't too frequent and probably go unnoticed on shorter releases such as demos or 7" records. One thing that I feel Cut It Out! are more confident in, is injecting most tracks with a galloping hard rock riff here-and-there which is most evident on "Coming Down", a song that uses a Black Sabbath-style riff as well as some southern rock guitar-noodling to accentuate the vocals.
The vocals are very similar to past releases with a snotty, pissed-off skate-punk delivery that is sadly becoming more and more uncommon these days. This style of singing is not for everyone, but is done extremely well if you can handle the snotty-style delivery. My only complaint on the vocals is when John attempts to actually sing instead of spit his lyrics in a low manner such as on the songs "Weeded Out" and "The Great American Nowhere Land". Overall, I feel Cut It Out! have improved a good amount from the split 7" release. I look forward to hearing more from these guys and hopefully getting to one of their shows again since they are very good live.
Rating: 3.5/5
Songs Worthy of Replay: "Lefty/Clockwork", "Coming Down" & "Cemetery Things"
Synopsis: Strong release from this hard-working South Jersey band that's worth your attention, even if it's just to check out their Myspace page or a live show in your area. Also, as creative as the watercolor style artwork is…I felt that it is a bit sloppy. The band's name on the cover and the song titles on the back cover are virtually unreadable without some serious concentration. It's sort of like you're looking for the hidden picture in the blurry painting (anyone who's seen Mallrats, knows what I'm talking about).