This came out in 2003 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
Talent may be the name of their game. But for the four Ontario pop-punks of Billy Talent, it’s just the beginning.
Although they pilfered their handle from the movie Hard Core Logo, they could just as easily have adopted the surname Personality, Originalit, or Eclectic. After all, they display all three in spades on their self-titled debut album. In the sea of cookie-cutter bands aiming for the same niche of the market, this quartet from Streetsville, Ont., are obviously unafraid to try colouring outside the lines. Their singer has a voice that falls somewhere between the snotty mewl of Johnny Rotten, the nasal whine of Jello Biafra, the yelp of Mark E. Smith and the bloodcurdling shriek of a jillion screamo outfits. The band are capable of dishing out the boilerplate chug ’n’ churn that gets the kids moshing, but they’re game enough to pepper it with some searing licks and choruses whose giant hooks could land Moby Dick. And when their guitarist isn’t dishing out the metallic riffage, he’s rocking a ceiling-duster quiff that would make The Farrell Bros. green. Put it all together and you’ve got a fairly entertaining Talent show.
