REVIEW: PROMO 2019 BY Three Knee Deep

So, the first review of 2019 is the 2 track by Three Knee Deep, which was released through Triple B records on the 3rd of January. To paint a mental picture, I was sat with my friends, discussing music, playing on the Nintendo Switch and generally just having a good time. We then received the news that Three Knee Deep had released a new EP. We put on the first track and I was excited by what I heard. I liked the raw sounding, rap styled vocals, that rough sounding metallic hardcore and the interesting structure. At this point on, I liked what I heard, so I thought I would write a review for Concrete. Furthermore, my friends were not best pleased with the EP on the first impression, comparing it to their last release. I wanted to review this EP with an open mind. I wanted to make my own judgements so I listened to the EP in the comfort of my own home.

The first track is ‘Duck Down,’ which was a lot to take in on first listen. As stated above, I admired the structuring of this two-track. It was exciting and there was a lot to the song. There was a gripping solo, a variation of vocal styles and different styled guitar tones that are reminiscent of ‘Turnstile’ and ‘Higher Power’ from the UK. The track starts rather simply, however, gives a taste of what is to come, with wild guitar solos. This goes on for roughly a minute and then the tension is built with a ring out. The track kicks in again with the vocals in that rapped style reminding me of E Town Concrete. This is when the structuring goes all over the place (not necessarily a bad thing) the vocals go into a lower growl and the track is simply left with a guitar ringing out an there is an effective hit of the bell on the ride cymbal. The track then flows back into the rapped vocals, this draws a close to the track and it flows into a guitar solo like what we heard at the start. The track then goes into an electronic beat. You can never go wrong with incorporating beats into hardcore.

It is hard to review both songs separately as the songs flow straight into each other. The beat simply breaks up the track. ‘Devils Playground’ is a lot like ‘Duck Down’ in a sense there is a lot to it. The lyrics go in hard, the vocals are a mix of rap and low growls. The track is very short and certainly packs a lot in. So, a criticism I would have would be that I would have liked to have a song that was slightly different from ‘Duck Down’ just to break up the ep. The EP more feels like a very long song rather than a two-track. Personally, I like Two tracks to stand out and both songs to be equally exciting. That would be my only negative of the two-track. There is a lot to it that I liked, and it does certainly live up to my expectations. The band knows how to stand out from the crowd and it is in a way nostalgic to E-Town. All in all, it was a good release, not ground-breaking for the genre, but it did grip me on multiple listens.

You can listen to the track here- https://bbbrecords.bandcamp.com/album/promo-2019