You can’t go wrong with this screamy emo stuff if you’re careful. I presume there must be some bands out there that don’t do it very well, Waifle maybe, but apart from that… If it’s screamo and it’s on No Idea, Lovitt, Ebullition or Mountain, then you’re set! Saetia are on Mountain, and this is a damn fine piece of work.
They tend to play it a little heavier than my other favourite bands of this type, playing forceful songs that soar on up then plummet back down, with the stark, hoarsely screamed vocals adding to the intensity. Once again this is a screamo band is able to blend in well the mellow, softer, sections with the raging power to keep you off balance. A particularly good job of this is made on “The Sweetness And The Light”, which is very much in the vein of Cap’n Jazz, at least until it goes all spastic unexpectedly. One of the most impressive things they do is to have both the twinkly Braid style guitars and heavier, harder hitting parts going at the same time, like on “Corporal”, a song which later flows into some beautiful repetitive guitars with distant yelled vocals before getting all hectic again.
I must mention the packaging as it is very nice indeed – no cd case here, rather a blue card cover, and the lyric booklet is full of legible handwriting, and cool drawings of various things.
I guess if you mix Braid with a bit of metally Boy Sets Fire hardcore gone crazier, and throw in some pensive Engine Down for the good measure then you get the Saetia sound. Sound good to you?
PS – They’ve just split up, this isn’t getting repressed. Buy it while you still have the chance. LP version has just been issued.