Up North - Pointless Perfection album review

Bog-standard metalcore crew fail to push all the buttons

Cover art for Up North - Pointless Perfection album

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These Germans’ debut album purports to be concerned with the question: “how perfect can things get – and is aiming at it really all there is?” The answer, based on the available evidence, is: a lot more perfect than this. It’s not that Pointless Perfection is bad so much as it’s just terribly uninspired. A compilation of melodic hardcore tropes strung together with little in the way of artistry or innovation, it’s not melodic enough to make a dent in the mainstream, nor heavy enough to satiate an appetite for brutality. The token catchy chorus on Reds And Whites only emphasises how forgettable the remainder is. Cramming 14 songs into 32 minutes, it’s nothing if not to-the-point. But it leaves you wondering what, exactly, that point is.