Billy Talent CD

This is an Enhanced CD, which contains both regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files.
Billy Talent: Benjamin Kowalewicz (vocals); Ian D'Sa (guitar, background vocals); Jonathan Gallant (bass, background vocals); Aaron Solowoniuk (drums).
Recorded at The factory, Vancouver, Canada and A Room Full Of Stuff, Toronto, Canada.
This is an Enhanced CD, which contains both regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files.
Personnel: Ian D'Sa (vocals, guitar); Joe Gallant & Illuminati (vocals).
Audio Mixer: Chris Lord-Alge.
Recording information: The Factory Studios, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canad.
Photographer: Dustin Rabin.
Billy Talent takes its curious handle from a character name in the 1996 mock rockumentary Hard Core Logo, which traced the continuing adventures of an aging Vancouver punk band. The reference is probably more resonant in the Talent's home base of Toronto; everywhere else, it's a little awkward. Fortunately, the quartet's eponymous Atlantic release struggles mightily to make music matter more than moniker or stylized genre revivalism. Over a muscular, relentless, and viciously catchy 40 minutes, the band checks the wiry, melodic punk of the Buzzcocks while working Fugazi's dueling vocalist dynamic and searingly precise guitar breaks into its own three-minute anthems. The Buzzcocks' influence is immediate and easy; indeed, Billy Talent conveniently opened a clutch of dates on the reunited veterans' 2003 tour. Likewise, Talent benefits from production that tweaks its hooks for maximum sonic pugilism. But while Benjamin Kowalewicz's yowl and screech do bear some resemblance to countryman and somewhat melodramatic Our Lady Peace mouth Raine Maida, his sloganeering lyrics are laced with cynicism, and right-hand man guitarist Ian D'Sa favors tense, angular guitar tones over the enormous compression of the mall-punk boy bands that proliferated at the turn of the century. "Try Honesty" and "This Is How It Goes" certainly have the shout-along choruses. But the latter's "Hold my breath until my heart explodes" is darker than any of Good Charlotte's toothless challenges to authority. There are no nods to hip-hop or power balladry here; "Living in the Shadows" and "Line & Sinker" are roiling, throttling post-hardcore screeds field-stripped to basics, but rebuilt with melody. "The Ex" might be the most straightforward two-and-a-half minutes of punk revivalism on Billy Talent. But even here, the band tears at conventional spurned boyfriend lyrics with vindictive gang vocal interplay, and rushes headlong into the explosive chorus with a nervous energy that's hard to fake. Certainly, Atlantic would like to see Billy Talent hit a chord with the kids -- the record's melodic accessibility bears that out -- but the group wisely favors agitation and tension over cherry-picking from current musical fashion. ~ Johnny Loftus
The self-titled debut album from Canadian pop-punkers Billy Talent finds the group foregoing the usual sing-song jokiness of bands like Blink 182 in favor of an old school approach that recalls everything from the original British punk of the Buzzcocks to 1980s L.A. hardcore. Charismatic lead vocalist Benjamin Kowalewicz has a strident delivery that combines the in-your-face whine of vintage Jello Biafra with the anthemic shouts of Jane's Addiction's Perry Farrell. Meanwhile, the rest of the band pounds away with a clean guitar-driven attack that often sounds like neo-garage rock of the Strokes/Vines/Flaming Sideburns variety, but with considerably more chops. Overall, BILLY TALENT is the work of an unusually tight and powerful band that knows its history but is more than creative enough to avoid mere revivalism.Q (12/03, p.120) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...They manage to strike a considered yet entertaining balance..."r