Redefine 'Cypher' Sugarshack Records
Despite their youth (the oldest members clock in at a mere 18 years), Redefine somehow manage to sound like an older, and slightly angrier version of Placebo. To the extent it has all been done before - vocalist Pete Daplyn even sings like Brian Molko - and it's all rather passe`. Still, their sound is tight and powerful, and if you find little Brian and his elfin chums are too small or old, then this could well be the band for you.
Black Velvet.July 2001 Dozy Day Dreams

Redefine 'Cypher' Sugarshack Records
Deceptive band, they lead you down that road signposted Muse/Desman/Placebo until they throw all their nu toys out of the pram in a spikey pissed off tantrum halfway through the lead track. There's a classy ferocity here, a desire to be different, a potentially significant band emerging, a depth of emotion for such a young four piece band (17/18 year olds). Exhilarating alternative rock that could well be going somewhere very soon...damn fine second single, the early signs are hopeful. Organ Issue 70 July/August 2001

SINGLE OF THE WEEK - KERRANG! 21/7/2001 REDEFINE
GOSH,THESE young men have learnt a lot in their short lives. Aged only 17 and 18, they have an intensity to them that you'd expect from someone who had been honing their skills for about 10 years longer. Singer Pete Daplyn's voice drips with heartbroken emotion over political rally drums and the kind of perfectly crunching guitars that don't leave any gaps at all. It's all in danger of being completely overblown, without ever quite crossing that line, but you can't accuse them of not setting their sights high enough. Knowing that this is just the start for them makes it all the more exciting, because they already sound like they've got great expectations in their own heads.
KKKK

Define Inspiration - Interview - Venue 3-17 August 2001
Bristol's very very noisy Redefine - 'A hard rock band minus the testosterone' are picking up a lot of attention, including even a Kerrang! Single of the week accolade. And they've just finished their A-Levels. But they're not getting big-headed. Just don't call us Nu-metal, they tell Chris Warren.

'Its just a good name, easy to pronounce'
They might claim not to be reinventing anything, yet Bristol's loud as hell foursome Redefine are looking set to turn on its head all the accepted definitions of nu and metal.

Like the dreaded term 'trip-hop' that lumped together a dozen Bristol bands a few years back, Redefine, fresh from finishing their A-Levels, feel the pigeonhole 'nu-metal' is more constraining than explaining. Nu-metal has hit the mainstream in much the same way that punk was vilified in a media that sold copies by carrying full page features on how to wear safety-pins and mail order bondage trousers.

"It's just a lazy way of putting people into genres" says Ben Wong, one of the band's founding members and provider of their caustic guitar sound. "Nu-metal has become this big macho thing now with costumes and posturing. It's not a movement, it's a selling point. we're not bothered about our image, we're just a hard rock band minus the testosterone, we experiment with different sounds and ways of doing songs all the time so it's disappointing when you do all that and you get described in one easy to swallow word. We have nothing in common with Linkin Park or Blink 182, that's just manufactured shit."

Strong words, maybe, but then Redefine can actually walk it like they talk it. Their first single for Bristol's burgeoning indie giant Sugarshack, was the storming Seven by Seven. An assured debut, to say the least, it crackled with screaming angst-fuelled lyrics and machine gun rhythms, making it an instant hit with the Evening Session's Steve Lamacq.

Their follow-up, the equally vital Cypher, has just been awarded Kerrang!'s prestigious Single Of The Week.

Though it's exciting to win an accolade in what is now one of the country's most influential publications in terms of sales, and representing a huge alternative rock market, Redefine are taking it all in their stride, joking that they're glad the magazine didn't catch them at a recent show in London with their label mates Two Day Rule.

"We were shit!" moans new bassist Paul Mah. "I mean..." trailing off, shaking his head. "We were all really chuffed with the Single Of The Week thing though," interjects drummer Steve Bishop, "but we're still starting out on that level, it'd be stupid to think that we've suddenly made it or something. If we started acting like that all our mates would just take the piss. It's probably why we haven't been wearing masks on Park Street and actually tried to make tunes rather than just screaming about god knows what."

All the signs are that Redefine have caught the mood of the UK's legions of alt-rock fans. "It's actually a very young scene in terms of age" says Ben. "People think that we're young at 18 and 19 but it's 13- and 14-year olds that come and see us. They have to sneak into the gigs. They're the ones who really know what's going on in music and they always go for what's not mainstream, the underground. We're surprised by the reaction we get because a lot of music on the underground in Bristol at the moment is punk. We've got that aggression, but our music is completely different. We get a good reaction from them, at the end of the day it's all about the music isn't it? If it's good and it's a bit different to what everybody else is doing...."

Spank
Redefine: Cypher
They sound like their sussed New Yorkers, but Redefine are in fact a bunch of A level schoolboys from Bristol. While the music press go orgasmic over The Strokes, perhaps they should take a listen to this homegrown band who may look quite geeky but rock the hardest, dirtiest and most grungeful as anyone has since before Kurt Cobain blew his brains out. An amalgamation of Rush-like epicness, hugely distorted guitars and vocals like Michael Stipe on very nasty steroids - but intensely tuneful all the same. Jesus, it's like a sonic guitar rush right into the mainline.

Twenty4seven
Redefine: Cypher
Redefine, intense Bristol rockers, are yet another brilliant British guitar driven band. The future of the South West music scene looks bright with the likes of Redefine, Greedmonkey and Skinflik looking all set to follow Muse into the hearts and minds of people all over the world with their irresistible , hard hitting, alternative rock sound. Christian Murison

Wondrous August 2001
Redefine are a young band from Bristol who produce some real intense alternative rock. 'Cypher' is their second single, combining severely heavy guitars with a military beat into a brilliant whole. Vocalist Pete Dalpyn comes across something like a combination of Placebo's Brian Molko and Marc Almond, but more than just that. His is amazing stuff for such a young band, all band members are 17 or 18. Can't wait for more.
Adrian Lyth

Redefine
Borderline, London July 2001
Rocksound Review issue nos 28
You know how when you're a kid the cake mixture always tastes nicer than the actual finished cake? Well' sometimes bands are like that. You catch them early when they're fresh and you can taste all the different ingredients and you think they're gonna be brilliant. But then a couple of years later they're just another boring, dried-up Battenburg. Well, teenage Bristolians Redefine are still at that beautifully-optimistic cake mixture stage and it could go either way. The ingredients are impeccably chosen: a Chino Moreno roar, some 'Disintegration'-era Cure angst and a whole basin full of tortured, brutalised riffage. Compare them with their support band Two Day Rule and maybe they're lacking in some respects. Two Day Rule sound pretty much the finished article- Skunk Anansie feasting on the still-skanking entrails of Rancid-but the Two Dayers are just a good band and won't get much better than that. Redefine could, potentially, be a great band. There are brilliantly ferocious moments in 'Seven by Seven' and 'Cypher' that sound like they could rise up out of an occasionally pedestrian set and swallow the venue whole. The clock is ticking already. Now we just have to wait and see.
(Trevor Baker)

Redefine (KERRANG)
The Monarch, London
Tuesday, September 4 
KKK
With British new metallers (that's new not nu) Redefine due onstage at 10pm, and the upstairs room of The Monarch heaving at 9.30, things look promising for the four piece. Unfortunately, at least half of the crowd is here to see the two support acts (who happen to be piss poor by the way) and they up and leave before the headliners start.

There's still a healthy number in though, when Redefine kick into 'Monkey Boy'. Visually, they look a little like a baby Nine Inch Nails or Filter, all being 17 or 18 years old but looking remarkably assured as they strut the stage dressed in black.

And tunes, they've got a few. 'Seven by Seven', their first single, has crunching verses leading to a sublimely wistful chorus, while song of the night 'The A to Z Of...' is fine melodic post-hardcore a la Glassjaw.

Six-stringer Ben Wong is undoubtedly the band's star player, wrestling some bizarre yet inspired noises from his guitar, while intermittently adding an industrial edge with a keyboard.

They're far from the finished article; the tunes get a bit samey in the middle of the set. But Redefine are incredibly tight and have enough songs to suggest that they might just stand a chance. And let's face it, they've got plenty of time to improve. 'The Daisychain' finishes things off in fine style, a shockingly intense combination of emotion and noise that's been put through the blender.

A fine start to a hopefully fruitful career. (Brett Callwood)

Redefine - Cypher 
The vocals remind me of Placebo's Brian Moloko in places. The music? Silverchair, or System Of A Down. More Nu-Rock than Nu-Metal (who thinks these terms up?), this should appeal to every black nail polish wearing 17 year old, coz it's made by two 17 year-olds, aided and abetted by a couple of 18 year olds.

So, no world tours for a year, as the guitarist and drummer are still at school.

Tell it to Ash, you're never too young to be in a decent band, and this is a pretty good opener. Mosh or headbang, the choice is yours. FVH - Full Moon