Unsigned: Eskimo Sunbed

Web: www.eskimosunbed.com

A Christian rock band from Swansea; that isn�t what we want to hear about a band. As well as citing POD and Linkin Park as influences, things get even more worrying.

I am disgustingly judging the band even before I�ve placed the record in to my CD player, poor journalism or were they asking for it? Probably the former, but at least they managed to eradicate some of my feelings with a rather loud and startling opener called �Wake Up�. It�s classic rock, repetitive loud and ferocious guitars with a maniac on the drums. Although not exactly the greatest thing to come out of the Welsh countryside, it does show enthusiasm for music and it certainly does the band no harm. Following track �Societies Underachiever� is a slightly more laid back affair, hints of funk on this song, however it�s lacking originality and seems to be a lazily written song. Nevertheless, they come up with something slightly more special with �Superman�, which could almost be described as an anthem. Shades of Sum 41 about this track, but this song could actually get Eskimo Sunbed sniffing around the charts, it has that American rock-nu-metal shouty old men in shorts sound about it, but these lads don�t have stupid beards nor do they wear baggy shorts, so even more credit to their name.

A steady four-track demo is what we have here. The band is really trying here and they do care �About The Music�, but the genre they are likely to be placed under is not a respectable one. Promising work, but it most certainly is lacking in originality and they don�t seem to advance on being anything other than competent musicians. Their lyrics are lacking intrigue, but they�ll cope and they most certainly aren�t a bad band; just not quite good enough.

3/10, Richard Collings