Billy Talent

Taking their name from a character in Bruce McDonald’s film, Hardcore Logo, based on Michael Turner’s book of the same name, Toronto’s Billy Talent are currently surfing a big wave of hype. The problem is that there isn’t a great deal of substance to warrant the attention. The band performs voluminous, metal-tinged emo and the players are all adept musicians, but the songs contain a variety of pronounced weaknesses. The band’s press kit points towards the Buzzcocks’ Howard Devoto as a vocal comparison, but a shrill Rob Halford of Judas Priest is more apt. With lines such as "Well I tripped, I fell down naked. Well I scratched my knees, they bled” from "Try Honesty,” the lyrical content occasionally appears daft. Ultimately, the irksome aspects resound too loudly, outweighing the stronger features on Billy Talent’s major label debut.