Labels: Flannel Gurl Records – Tor Johnson
Review by: Sam Knight
This record didn’t really make sense to me the first five or so listens. It was like a mish mash of 90s emo, screamo, melodic hardcore and 90s skate punk. Mixing styles can work well, but at first this record sounds like a total mess and seemed quite forced. It made for quite a frustrating listen.
Then, one evening I just stuck it on, to give it another chance and suddenly it all made sense. I realised it was actually quite well structured and the songs began to come together a lot more. I think it’s sort of like a musical puzzle that has to be persevered with to fully understand. Although, it’s not without it’s flaws. I feel that some of the songs are far too short and just as you’re getting into them, they’ve moved onto the next one and despite the fact that it begins to make sense eventually, there are still a few parts that sound a bit jerky and messy. It also begins to trail off a bit on the second side and you can find yourself drifting off, only to be brought back with the occasional good hook. The last song has a super long emo part though, which is possibly the highlight of the entire album, followed by a really great sing along section. In fact the last song is probably longer than the rest of the second side combined.
I honestly can’t make any solid comparisons musically as to what this sounds like, but I can definitely hear similarities to fellow Bostonians the Effort, in that they do the whole melodic hardcore, with an emo twist thing, but at the same time they sound very different. It is definitely hard to pigeonhole into a certain scene, but that could work in their favour as they could end up playing with a variety of different bands.
This is a solid effort, but it would be good if they streamlined their sound just a touch on the next record.