With over five releases in their discography, Halifax, Nova Scotia four-piece Outtacontroller are no strangers to the punk scene by any means. In October 2015 they released their latest full-length Television Zombie.

The record is filled with poppy, garage punk tunes in the same vein as bands like toyGuitar, Mean Jeans, and Radioactivity – and that’s sort of what the problem with this album is. After listening through all sixteen track on Television Zombie it was hard to tell what made this album unique. There are bands (like the aforementioned ones listed) that do what Outtacontroller does, but better and in more interesting and creative ways. That isn’t to say that this is “bad record,” but it is not that good either.

For the most part the songs are based on fuzzy-sounding guitar chord progressions and heavily melodic vocals. There aren’t really any identifiable riffs and rhythms that distinguish songs from one another and the same goes for the rest of the instruments. At times the lyrics can seem a bit stale. The song “Pizza Wolf” is literally about how they ordered a pizza and it was stolen and the song “Creeps” has lines like “They’re hangin’ in the streets/ They’re hanging with the creeps/ Got nowhere else to be…”

Television Zombie is one of those records that has too much filler and probably could have been four to six tracks shorter. There are a couple gems in there though like “Hit The Streets” and the title track, but by the time you are half way through the album it is like you have been listening to the same song for a while. The album isn’t offensive really, but at the same time it just doesn’t stand out that much -- you sort of wonder why you aren’t listening to In This Mess instead.

You can check this album out here.