Bowling For Soup use a naughty amount of 'woah woah woahs' in their music. As do Dragonforce. As do Bon Jovi. American Fangs are here to rival this group of hollering racket-makers, with their 'Pomona' EP serving up the singalong soup in plentiful loads.
The title track does this with supreme ease, melding snotty alt-rock noise with gleeful melodies and hooks memorable enough to keep you tapping your foot for an embarrassing length of time. It's all cliché, and contains enough cheese to cause a case of lactose intolerance, but American Fangs do what they do so well. There's an air of not giving a shit, and that's what makes this EP so much fun.
Get The Hell On is brash and obnoxious, with the chorus a statement of intent, almost. Small vocal nuances hint at debut album My Chemical Romance if only for a second, but it's just enough variation to stop it from becoming too pedestrian.
Acoustic ditty Sorry somewhat misses the mark, coming off as a less emotive and generally less brilliant Michale Graves tune, and it does cause and unfortunate lull in the arc of the EP. Live, it could make for one of those 'lighters in the air!' moments, but on record it just sits uncomfortably.
The best stuff comes in the form of demo track Le Kick. It's a less polished, grittier version of what's gone before. The grunge guitar tone and chant-along chorus translates better in this under-produced number, suggesting that maybe American Fangs should concentrate on their sound a bit more, rather than attaining crystal clear production.
American Fangs aren't going to change the face of music. They're not going to be the next Sex Pistols or the next Metallica. They're just fun. In a scene full of pretentious arseholes and fakes, it's genuinely refreshing to witness a band doing what they love because they want to. It's not cool, it's probably not going to be popular with your punk mates...but bloody hell, it's a good laugh.
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