Opening their debut album with Britannia Mills, downcast are bringing an edgy Neck Deep inspired sound. It’s got all the hallmarks of a strong pop-punk track, with the added gritty elements. There’s a pulsing rhythm section and funky guitar lines.
Catharsis is catchy and well written. A Weight That I Can’t Stand is very 2016 Neck Deep. It’s a good track.
Sylvan View takes things down a notch in terms of pace. It’s a call to family and childhood with a dark twist of alcoholism.
Closing track I Want To Love Again has a Junior feel. It starts as a mellow track with minimum instrumentation. It’s an open an honest track.
There’s a clear pattern to I saw hell when I was with you and it works. It’s a dark twist on pop punk and while reminiscent of what Neck Deep used to do, it has the downcast stamp on it. It’s an album that you have to listen to a few times to fully appreciate as it’s easy to get distracted by either the lyrics or the instrumentation in each track.
Lyrically the album is deep and covers some really relatable topics.