Time In Malta - Alone With The Alone - CD (2004)

Labels: Equal Vision
Review by: Damien Mills

I’m not really sure where this band falls in the current hardcore scene, I always thought of them in relation to the Californian punk and emo scenes but I just heard they are going on tour with Terror. Musically, I guess they fall somewhere in between, sort of chuggy guitars and hard drums but with yelled/sung vocals and a lot of variation in moods and emotions, rather than just ‘angry’.

If you have heard their first album you’ll know what to expect, though this seems alot more confident and accomplished than that record. They have also had a line up shuffle with the singer switching to guitar and a new bassist, something that on this evidence seems to have paid off as the songs definitely benefit from the extra guitar, I can imagine live even more so. It also gives their actual song writing a lot more scope and freedom I think, there are definitely some great well crafted riffs on here as well as some nice moods created.

So, they are on EVR and probably have thousands of dollars behind them and a big booking agent, but on a purely musical level this is aces, definitely minus points for name checking the band ‘Hondo Maclean’ in the band thank yous though…..