Stay Gold "Pills and Advice" CD
[Indecision]
Here's some great melodic hardcore with a little bit of a metallic tinge and some really creative riffing that reminds me of what some of the west coast bands were doing in the late-90's mixed with some of that metallic hardcore from Florida (the good stuff, think a little Shai Hulud/Strongarm action, but not too much). Hell, sometimes they sound like Turning Point too, and you can't lose there. (Oddly enough they cover Turning Point's awesome "Thursday" at the end of the disc, unlisted, which I didn't know when I came to the conclusion that they reminded me of Turning Point. Ha.) They're all over the place from straight hardcore chord progressions to melodic runs and chunky rhythmic breaks that occasionally mess with unusual time signatures, and the vocals range from screaming/shouting to singing, or a blend of the styles. "Pity Party" drops some awesome clean guitars at the end. They don't mess with that stuff too much but it might not be a bad idea if they did, because it sounds great and that variety would probably benefit them. The production is good, but with a little bit of work these guys would sound even better. As it stands the vocals are a bit out front because the music is a little bit muddy, but it doesn't bug me after my ears adjust to it. It's just that the vocals have more clarity than anything else, and the bass tone is really thick without a lot of definition, so that sort of takes away from the guitars a little bit (the drumming still pops out just fine). The booklet on this thing is pretty thick, printed all in black and white and shades of orange/yellow (Gold, I guess?). Each page is devoted to one song and has a polaroid photo with the title handwritten on it, and the lyrics appear above the photos (which, though blurry, tend to be recognizably tied to the tracks). As per usual the content is personal, and even though some of the issues are rather generic, I do dig their approach: "Yes, I'm giving up this time. I'm done with falling behind. Nothing that I seem to do ever makes the grade. They said it was just a phase, one day I would grow to make my parents proud. They didn't know what they were talking about..." This is definitely a band to watch. More diversity wouldn't harm them, because a lot of these songs tend to sound the same, but I'm definitely into their style. And the Turning Point cover fucking kills! (7/10)
Running time - 32:08, Tracks: 12
[Notable tracks: Best Kept Secret, On the Homefront, Pity Party, Thursday]
Indecision Records - http://www.indecisionrecords.com

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