Single Review: High Down – Moving On EP

Portsmouth pop punkers High Down arrived on the music scene last year and they will be self releasing their new EP, Moving On, on the 1st September via all major digital platforms. High Down have been steadily amassing new fans and gathering firm momentum with their highly contagious brand of hard hitting pop punk which unsurprisingly has a sound that is reminiscent of Blink-182, State Champs and New Found Glory, they deliver all the expected hooks, riffs and anthemic choruses that are the hallmark of pop punk, and maybe that’s the reason I felt I was experiencing deja vu when listening to the EP.

 

Against The Tide kicks things off with a heavier take on the pop punk sound, the recognisable bounce and spirit of the genre is most definitely there, but the riffs and beats are delivered with more crunch and conviction than the majority of pop punkers, and for me it’s all the better for it. All Of You and Life Lessons continue in the same muscular vein until we get to the highlight of the Moving On EP, Making History, which boasts an uplifting chorus and veers slightly away from the pop punk on steroids template of the initial trio of tracks, and of course no self respecting pop punk band could be without the slower acoustic number that builds to an anthemic ending, and this is duly delivered with Rescue Me.

 

High Down have produced an EP that is worthy addition to the pop punk stable, and whilst they have added a heavier element into the mix it largely adheres to the format of the those that came before them, and I find myself longing for a pop punk band that will take the genre somewhere new. Don’t get me wrong I enjoy a bit of pop punk, providing the punk element hasn’t been buried under the pop, but the genre’s defining albums were released almost twenty years ago. Unless someone starts to produce something that veers away from the style and delivery of those albums then the genre is going to start to become very stale very soon.

 

High Down‘s Facebook page can be found here and their Big Cartel store is here