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My Awesome Compilation: Frontiers

08th May 2008 | by Aidan Williamson

"Tell me what company thou keepst, and I'll tell thee what thou art." said Spanish Novelist Miguel de Cervantes back in the 16th century.

Considering that My Awesome Compilation count bands such as A, Funeral For A Friend, Hell is for Heroes, Fightstar and Alkaline Trioamongst their company, it should be fairly obvious that they are a breakneck-speed exercise in high-quality pop-punk with a hint of experimentalism.

Never has a time seen such a dearth of such bands, as imports and U.S copycats fill the airwaves it's a welcome change to hear British pop-punk that doesn't sound like the usual Stateside-wannabes. Conversely, whilst many bands seek to reinvent the wheel through over-zealous attempts at genre-splicing, M.A.C recognise that the wheel works just fine and concentrate all of their efforts in putting as much power behind it as possible, and maybe giving it a snazzy looking trim.

Album number two for the Leicestershire band, "Frontiers", certainly checks all the right boxes. Spirited backing vocalists, choruses fuelled by six gallons of Red Bull and an attention to crafting natural sounding song structures. Where the band of brothers - consisting of Chris and Andy Driver, and Darius and Woody Cobb - go the extra mile is on branching out in terms of influences and musicianship. Take for example, the track "Theatre Room" which upon hitting the midway point engages in some riffage straight from the play-book of Rage Against the Machine. Wait a few bars, and they slam that straight into Cooper Temple Clause-esque screams of electronica.

Similarly, "Deal Me In" sees noodling guitars duetting with buzzing electronics before they are entirely consumed by the digital monster, which then returns to the depths of the 01010011 01100101 01100001.

The quartet do perhaps rely on the same type of of tempo, structure and vocal stylings for a bit longer than is general advised, but at just over thirty minutes in length, the sense of repetition is always far from mind.

"Accelerate" deviates pleasingly from this template as the threat level is heightened, dropping everything into the lower registers as low slung guitars send out drop C# riffs and Chris Driver switches his mid-range vocals for something altogether more hardcore. "Now the chase is on, we're never gonna make it" he cries out for the song's central refrain. On the evidence presented on "Frontiers", we're thinking otherwise.

Rating:  7 / 10