Splatter – Fear of the Park CD review

Punk rockers Splatter are back with their new studio album Fear of the Park, and although the sound quality of it may be as poor as a crippled hobo living in North London – Fear of the Park has some rather interesting and enjoyable moments that are great to sing along and have a head bang to. An 11 track album with a spooky horror film concept; Fear of the Park is made up of straight punk rock anthems, nothing more, nothing less and it’s the Sex Pistol, PIL, Stiff Little Finger esque sounding vibe given off in their music that makes Fear of the Park such an energetic and brisk album.

There is a hell of a lot of filler on this album and it’s such a shame as there are some really shining moments on Fear of the Park that are tarnished by the remaining filth on it. Tracks like ‘Hope’, ‘Minotaury’ and ‘Die in a Leather Jacket’ or piss poor excuses of songs, showing nothing musically interesting what so ever in them and sounding as if some GCSE high school student had composed half of the album. Note to Splatter: “YOU CAN’T CALL YOURSELF A BAND IFF ALL YOU DO IS PLAY POWER CHORDS, WITH THE ODD GUITAR LICK AND SNORT LIKE A FRENZIED WILD BOAR INTO THE MICROPHONE”… Rant over.

The sound quality of Fear of the Park really does let it down massively, giving all the songs (even the handful of half decent ones) a rough, distorted mix to them. The production is that bad, you can actually here the crackling of the microphone and recording system in tracks such as ‘Dark Way’ and ‘Killer Clown’. I know not every band can afford five star quality recording equipment or even time in a professional studio, but the way Fear of the Park has been recorded added to the fact half the songs are terrible really makes Splatter sound like amateurs.

Sure, 90% of this album may be total pig swell, but the remaining 10% is quite promising. Only 10% you say, well yes; there is only a handful of decent tracks on Fear of the Park and perhaps it’s should have been an EP and not an album, but if Splatter had opted for a better production then tracks such as ‘Welcome to Zombieland’ and ‘Here Come to the Monsters’ would be absolutely stunning punk rock anthems, combining chant along gang vocals and punchy music to form two monster tracks.

Unfortunately Splatter have run aground with this album and its going to take something very special on their next album to get them back their credibility. This is a musical horror in all the wrong ways and if you like it even slightly than this review suggests, a zombie clearly has been chewing on your brains! [3/10]

1. Intro
2. Killer Clown
3. Welcome To Zombieland
4. Here Come The Monsters
5. Die In A Leather Jacket
6. Hope
7. Why Do They Always Have To Die In This Way?
8. Sinner In Heaven
9. My Lucky 13
10. Minotaury
11. Dark Way