To be a good pop punk band in the mid-2010s is hard. There’s a wealth of acts trying their hand at the genre: you can’t get away with being formulaic, the bands of the modern era’s canon simply won’t allow it.
ROAM’s debut,‘Backbone’ shows promise. The opening track sees the album introduced in a ‘Songs For The Deaf’-esque radio format before ‘Cabin Fever’ kicks in with some, now retro, Lower Than Atlantis-style deadpan guitar.
There are moments here – if perhaps a little too few and far between – when the band deliver some truly exciting fast-paced, hardcore rooted riffs on songs like ‘Deadweight’ and ‘All The Same’, with the vocal lines following a similar course with skate punk tinges throughout. Jack Glasscock
