Here's some melodic metalcore meets poppy emo/indie rock from Canada (leaning more towards the latter than the former). One minute it's singing vocals and melodic chord progressions, the next it's scathing vocal screams and rhythmic metalcore chops complete with pinch harmonics, and then it's on with some clean guitars and that sort of thing. Honestly, I'd chuck the screaming vocals and the heavier riffing and just go straight for the catchy, memorable emo stuff. What they're doing isn't exactly original now, so taking that one step further for the sake of stronger songwriting certainly wouldn't hurt. That's just my two cents. Every now and then the screaming vocals work well with the music (see "This Broken Killswitch"), but for the most part I find myself getting into the poppier riffing more, because it's still sort of heavy, but it just sounds better and makes for a cleaner listen. If there wasn't any screaming on this EP it would be a lot better as it is, even if they kept the slightly metallic edge to some of the riffing. The recording isn't bad, but something needs tweaking. The drums sound really fucking good, but everything else lacks that same fullness. It's almost like everything is sort of lumped together in the same general tonal range, and then the drums cover a wider spectrum and have a bit more kick to 'em. The clean guitars fall into that category as well, but they're too choppy to really do the trick for me (except in "Sketch Artist Composite", where they're far more proper). I'd just try to brighten things up a bit and give the instruments some individual definition without losing any cohesion. I can't tell what's going on visually. Aside from some faint images of an illustration of a skull, there are a lot of strange colors (sort of mixing blues and browns) blurred together in abstract splotches that look like motion shots or something, but I'm not sure what's really there. I'm not that into the lyrics because in some ways they seem generic, but the way the content is handled is actually pretty interesting, despite the ideas being relatively typical. "Close your eyes I'm gonna make you famous. And I never got to know you and I never knew your name. Yeah, life's not fair... but you know it has a strange way of working out. My god, it's beautiful the way the crimson syrup drains away. The art in the knife as it lathers red milk. You are my canvas." I don't know, this is okay. They could be a lot better, but this is okay. Imagine a combination of Taking Back Sunday and a bunch of those melodic-yet-still-sort-of-screamy-and-aggressive Trustkill/Ferret types of bands. They're a few steps away from being really fucking good, just not yet.
[One Day Savior]
Running time - 20:43, Tracks: 6
[Notable tracks: This Broken Killswitch, A Torrid Love Affair]
One Day Savior Recordings - http://www.onedaysavior.com
