The Lost "Hidden Beneath the Shadows of Fear" CD
[Indecision]
Whoa... I knew nothing about this band when I popped this in, so I was surprised to be hearing anything laidback from Indecision Records period. Then I saw that there are members/former members of Adamantium and Throwdown involved, which made it all the more surprising! (I think there are former members of Farside and Open Hand as well, but I'm not totally clear on any of that.) Their style is basically rocked out emo. There are plenty of clean guitars, heavier chord progressions that are both melodic and at times loosely metallic, some rock based rhythms and others that flirt with catchier styles, and so on. The singing is deeper than average and has a unique sound, which I like, but I do think the vocals need significant work. They seem restrained, and was the singing more energetic and all out it would add a lot to these songs. The writing is pretty good already, but in a similar instance to the vocals I think they ought to kick the pace up a notch or two at times just to add more energy and emphasis. "Moment to Moment" kicks off with a borderline sludgy rock riff and has a good sense of memorability happening; "Duality of Love" brings in some faint keyboards during the chorus that sound somewhat out of place to me (whereas the layered guitar melodies are quite nice); and "Let Love Rain" is among the catchier tracks, using a straightforward verse/chorus structure and such. The low vocal harmonies sound forced and bring in a weird sort of abstract 80's new wave undercurrent that I don't care for, but I think all of that would be straightened out if the vocals improve with time. I have no quarrels with the recording, it's clear and sounds pretty full. The drums come across as somewhat flat compared to how dense the guitars and bass are, and the vocals could possibly stand to be barely brighter, but... it's no big deal. For the most part it's clean and effective, so that's not an issue. I really like the layout on this one. It's fairly simple and consistent but the stark photographic manipulations really jump out and look somewhat atypical, and the text is all crisp and legible in a compact setup. Lyrically it's a mixed bag of life and love with a mildly hopeful message wrapped up in all of the bitterness dealing with perseverance and living for yourself, and something about the material strikes me as more honest and effective than a lot of bands out there. "There's something dead in me, there's something dead in everyone who's had a heart broken, scared to let it happen again, So what are we to do?" Not bad. It needs work, and it's probably going to be an acquired taste for most due to the character of the singing, but there's potential here. For a debut EP this is a decent indication of what they can do, so... hopefully they'll progress naturally from here on out. (6/10)
Running time - 19:19, Tracks: 5
[Notable tracks: Moment to Moment, Let Love Rain]
Indecision Records - http://www.indecisionrecords.com

This review has been displayed 1915 times.