Evergreen Terrace "Burned Alive by Time" CD
[Eulogy]
I don't particularly like this band's name so I sort of expected this CD to be kind of boring (bad habit, I know), but I actually really like it. It's modern metalcore but they really fuse a bunch of different playing styles together really nicely, and they can actually write a good song, so that immediately gives them an edge over other bands. The first song alone ("Understanding the Fear That Lies Within") offers up a perfect balance of discordant riffing, chunky power chords, and blaring screams with acoustic guitars, excellent singing vocals, and creative melodic guitar interaction. "No Donnie, These Men are Nihilist" and the title track sort of bring in a Shai Hulud meets earlier Cave In versus mid-90's emo type of thing with some spacey harmonies, powerful arrangements, and faster octave chord rhythms, etc. Those three tracks pretty much set the tone for the entire record. For the most part the tracks do stand on their own, though. Some focus on catchy choruses, others focus more on a flurry of changes and diversity, and so on. "Absence of Purpose in the Succession of Events" is even a short little instrumental (well, I think there are some indecipherable whispers way back in there) with keyboards and programmed drums that actually sounds fucking great. After the last track they even hide a killer cover of Depeche Mode's "Enjoy the Silence". Good stuff. The production is the only thing holding this back from being a true gem, and it only needs minor tweaking. The drums sound good and there's a solid bass presence, but the rest needs some work. The clean guitars tend to work out fine, but the distortion needs to be heavier and smoother, thus tightening up the sound a bit - things can get a little bit choppy as it stands, which sounds sloppy. As far as the vocals, they just need to be a little bit brighter. Right now the vocals are ever so slightly muddy (mainly the singing parts) and the guitars just have too much of a midrange texture going on (helped out by the punchy basslines). So... next time around I hope they round things out and really kick my ass. I dig the layout on this one, too. Everything is printed on matte paper and the color scheme is really unusual, with a lot of warm oranges and reds, plus some black, yellow, and dull green. The text arrangements are visually interesting, and all of the lyrics are handwritten with scribbles and sketches surrounding them, which just makes for a different sort of look from what you'll usually find. I'm generally not a fan of humorous song titles, but these guys won me over with "Dear Live Journal", "Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em", and "Heavy Number One (aka: Shizzle My Nizzle)". I cracked a smile, what can I say? The lyrics aren't quite as interesting, commonly relying on often-employed references to flowers, scars, and that sort of thing, but they're not horrible so I can let it slide. All in all this is a damn promising effort. I'll be looking forward to their next record with high expectations... (7/10)
Running time - 31:43, Tracks: 10
[Notable tracks: Understanding the Fear That Lies Within, Dear Live Journal, Taking Care of the Dead Fish, Enjoy the Silence]
Eulogy Recordings - http://www.eulogyrecordings.com

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