There's really no reason this EP shouldn't seriously kick ass: Six quick tracks of quality melodic straightedge hardcore centered around a modern take on the old school sound, featuring members of Champion and Carry On. Now, for whatever reason it doesn't exactly kick ass yet, but it is damn close, and I think that with time there will indeed be an extreme degree of ass for this band to kick. The only things that slightly hold these songs back are the recording and the fact that much of the writing sounds pretty similar to what a lot of other bands are doing these days. Don't get me wrong, the recording's actually pretty solid: The mix is well balanced, it's crisp and clear without being overly polished, etc. But something about the drums feels a little overcompressed, and the guitar tone feels similarly restrained on some level. The vocals sound dead on and I love the bass tone, and the acerbic leads in the title track are about as good as the guitars could ever want to get. But for the most part something about the guitars (specifically the more melodic or lead based elements) feels too thin to get the job done, so the force of the vocals and the basslines definitely starts to overpower the guitar work. It's possible that a more efficient drum sound would actually make the percussion back off and give the guitars more breathing room, which could do the trick, but regardless... there's something about the recording here, some minor issue, that's just barely keeping the band from reaching their full potential on this outing. The one glaring difference in terms of songwriting is the much more melodic and rocked out "A Light in the Dark", which definitely has its own unique sound and offers up a few very atypical riffs that bear a shitload of promise for these guys. Some of that also pops up in "Betrayed", as well as the tail end of "Proud to Be", and that's probably about enough to start differentiating the band from some of their labelmates, but I think a stronger sense of balance between the rather straightforward chord progressions and those interestingly rocked out melodic sounds would be killer. The layout keeps things simple with a minimal color scheme and high contrast imagery that grabs the eye. The lyrics tend to be forthright in their calls for perseverance and fairly general hardcore tenets, with a couple of tracks carrying the straightedge banner as only a select few still do: "I still wear an X on my hand and you know that I'm still proud to be." Good stuff. Not yet all that it could be, but hot damn if I'm not pulling for these guys to nail it, because I could easily see myself flipping out over this band down the road. Even their more commonplace moments are precisely the kind of energetic and powerful hardcore that hits the spot for me, so I'll really eagerly be looking forward to what they come up with next. Were the recording perfect on this EP there's a chance that the best elements of the songwriting could sway me into giving it an 8/10, so hell, I guess they are already kickin' some ass!?
[Bridge Nine]
Running time - 12:43, Tracks: 6
[Notable tracks: Understand, A Light in the Dark, Proud to Be]
Bridge Nine Records - http://www.bridge9.com
