The Maple Room "s/t" CD
[self-released]
Here's a solid demo of heavy-ish emo styled stuff from this Belgian act that features former members of bands like Full Court Press and Easy Way Out. Most of the vocals are straight singing, with a little bit of very tasteful screaming generally used as backing texture, and the songwriting is fairly straightforward - based around thick chord progressions that rarely stray from melody, and occasionally hitting on a slightly more metalcore vein of dissonance. "An Expresso at the Smithfield" is slightly slower (all of the tracks tend to dwell within moderate tempos) and uses more clean passages, but the melodic chord progressions and overall mood of the track are significantly powerful, which I really get into. On the other hand, "Holding on to the Things We Hate the Most (Losing Our Summer)" shifts back and forth from typically emo/indie chords and some of these heavier chords with lots of ringing texture and nice drum fills. All of the songs are along similar lines, just with bits and pieces of differentiation (the octave chords, lead lines, and piano in "Nightwalkers", for example). The production is a little bit muddy, but for a demo it really sounds quite good. The tones are pretty much fine, I just think they need to brighten it up a little bit and work with balancing out the bass tones to give the instruments a little more breathing room. The vocals are a little plain in tone, or at least the singing is, but I think the screaming has a bit more oomph to its recording. I think the vocals are good, they just need a little more color. The vocal harmonies aren't quite dead on, but they're necessary, so working on getting that aspect worked out is a key thing to keep in mind here. The CD-R comes in a slim jewel case with a quality xeroxed booklet that contains the lyrics. The design could be nicer but it's cool that they included more detail, and it does look fine. The lyrics are of course personal and deal with friendship, regret, etc., but there is often a bit of a hopeful undercurrent. I have little doubt that this band will get signed off of this demo. I certainly look forward to hearing more from them as well, as with minimal tweaking they'll be right about where they should be with this material. There are definitely aspects of this material that relegate it to being a demo, but the songwriting and overall delivery point to that special something more, and I hope the band will do well for themselves. Good work. (7/10)
Running time - 16:44, Tracks: 4
[Notable tracks: An Expresso at the Smithfield, Nightwalkers]
The Maple Room - http://www.themapleroom.net

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