There's only so much one can tell from a this young band. The Kenitals was formed in '09, and this is their first demo that they released in the hope of getting some gig possibilities. The band's current main idea is to play some gigs and have fun without too high ambitions, which is more than fine at this early stage. Oh, and a word about their name: the band chose it because it's punk and because "everyone likes the kenitals". Love it or hate it. Two of the members play in Social Outcast also.
The first song is a really compact one, lasting for just a bit over a minute. It's simple verse-chorus-verse-chorus -structure and fast pace make it a really appealing one, although it's not so good at sticking to your mind. The next song is similar but a bit more interesting as it relies less on immediate appeal and fast pace and more on vocals and vocal patterns; sadly the vocal sound is too mushy for this track, so it loses a lot of it's edge, but still sounds pretty decent. Holiday lasts for 1:30 and is the longest track this far. The vocals actually work well on this one despite the mushy sound, simply because the vocalist has a smaller amount of lyrics to deliver. The vocals have a good amount of feeling and variation in 'em, and the "hey!"-shout-alongs in the chorus sound energetic and thus work well.
Song four is about as long as the three previous ones combined. It's a rocking and structure-wise more freely flowing one than the others, and it even has some handclaps and a simple jamming mid-part at it's end to spice things up. The most notable thing is, however, the presence of short and pure rock'n'roll-riffs scattered all over the song to really lift it's mood up. This is the one song that makes you remember this demo, and also shows an other side of the band's nature and tendencies. This song also was the one to really make this band noteworthy in my eyes. Pretty much the only real negative aspect of the song is the "let's slam everything yeah!" rock-style -ending, the same kind which also started the demo by the way. It sounds lame.
Visually the demo sucks. The idea for the cover image is cool, but the image is just too grainy. The same applies to the back cover texts and the lyrics, and the layout for the texts is messy, too. I hope the covers won't be made with similar haste the next time. The actual lyrics are a pleasing and very street punk-ish mix of humour, alcohol and partying attitude. They won't make you enlightened, but they might make you bang your head and shout along to them. Works for me, especially as this is the band's debut demo.
The band's rockpunk works fairly well, even if it's musically quite faceless aside of the few street punk-elements. Most of the demo's appeal is due to the fast and really energetic drum work, which really kicks the songs up a notch or two. The vocalist needs to either improve his output to a more energetic level, or he needs to compose the lyrics so that he can spit the words out with more feeling and presence; now he even brings the songs' mood down on occasion. The bass guitar could also be employed to a greater extent, although it does it's job well as-is.
I only wish that the band would've taken the time to work on the two first songs more, as they would've have what it takes to be well more memorable. Now they sound good, but flow past way too quickly for you to really grow fond of them. The same applies to the whole demo: it's too short to really give a decent image of the band. I understand that the band was in a hurry to release something with which they could promote themselves to the gig-organizers, but even more so I will expect more of them the next time. Decent and promising, but not quite there yet.