Australia's own Hardcore party animal and all-round musician, ex-I KILLED THE PROM QUEEN's JJ Peters returns to bass on the new DEEZ NUTS album. DEEZ NUTS having recently split ways with bassist Sean Kennedy, also ex-I KILLED THE PROM QUEEN. Leaving JJ to take up the role once more. He did this when the band first started in 2007 and was the bassist for "Stay True", which is said by many to be the band's finest release. They have come a long way since that start. They are known for mixing Hardcore with a Rap style of vocals. Hopefully with JJ adding bass to his to-do-list, it won't affect his focus on vocals. Let's find out if the Hardcore 3-piece can string together another great album.

"Crooked Smile" feels more like a Pop-Punk infused track than a hardcore one. It is catchy from the off. This has the vocals hitting not quite as hard as we are used to from the back catalogue. Seems a bit too repetitive, doesn't really seem to grow lyrically, but the melody is decent enough to take the song through. It could be a better song if they mixed up the lyrics and allowed the chorus to go somewhere instead of just repeating.

"You Gotta Feel Me" has a good beat from the off. It's ticking over more like DEEZ NUTS songs usually do. This is more of a hardcore style, it has a good build up from Matt on Guitars, but instead of exploding, it bails out into a softer approach similar to its predecessor. This song also gets into a sync of repeating the melody and vocals, so the first third seems cool and new, the last is just a repeat of the first. The band could have done this, but added a few twists and turns to add a different depth and way of sound

"Get a Grip" is lyrically faster very briefly at the start. It then has a chorus which sounds like Mark Hoppus from BLINK-182, but I can't find any information to confirm or deny that. You listen to it and you'll see. The melody is a bit too basic in places, it has a small build up, but never goes where you want it to. It's a watered down form of what could have been from 10 years ago. There is little more to say about the song, it just repeats form showed throughout the album.

"Bitterness End" is the final song on the album, so when the beat is slow to start, you may not be left expecting much, but it does pick up. Actually has vocals that progress with heavier set instrumentalists bring the song into a new style which the album has missed. Then the chorus enters and the intense build up goes, but the verses are back up to hard-hitting. If only the whole song was intense.

An album that never seems to get out of 3^rd gear. It has places in songs where you are begging for the song to explode into gear, but does nothing. This is of course far from the material you can hear on "Stay True" and "This one's for you". You maybe into the Pop-Punk crossing Hardcore that bands like Hollywood Undead got into, and you may be thinking this sound is still good. Or you may be listening to this and wondering what might have been if they had used their old style. It also shows that for me, JJ did not have enough time to do vocals without worrying about bass. So, maybe another album in the future may have (another) new bassist and let JJ get back onto concentrating on vocals. Until then, we can only wonder and wish.