Despite the fact that they've only been around since 2002, I've heard a decent amount of hype about this Canadian act over the years, though I never bothered to check 'em out. This is pretty god damn good, though. It's very melodic, metallic hardcore with a lot of energy and straight yelling vocals with some really memorable songwriting. There are tons of tempo changes from high-speed bursts of rather traditional hardcore to slower and more moderately paced dissonance with lots of layering. All of the songs are also less than three minutes and keep things short but sweet, which works well considering the entire record is less than a half-hour! The title track is the first song that gets a little more involved with the picking patterns and variety of riffing for a true standout and one of the best songs herein, the aptly titled "Talk is Cheap" is a harder edged track with one of the most blatant mosh breaks of the entire disc, "Our Distance" is nice and fast with tons of layers of octave chords and ripping picking patterns that have kind of a metal-ish pop-punk sound (complete with backup vocals from Russ Rankin of Only Crime/Good Riddance), "Falling Apart" is textbook metallic hardcore through and through with a little more of a groove and lighter melodic tinges underneath chunky power chords, etc. The recording is strong as well. The guitars are thick and pack a good punch without being overly heavy, the bass is really massive and adds a ton of density in the background, the drums are crisp and effective, and the vocals fall right into place. I have no complaints at all. But the layout? Ehhh, so-so. It's clean and consistent and I've seen worse, but I find the cover art to be quite lame. It's just boring and totally uninteresting, so... it's nothing to write home about at all - a far cry from representing how forceful the music is. The lyrics are pretty basic and cover topics such as being yourself, heartbreak, hardships, etc. I'm not blown away by the content at all, but it doesn't matter since the energy of the music really carries everything with this one. I'll be looking forward to hearing more from these guys in the future. I can definitely see why kids are really into this, and I bet they'll start blowing up here pretty shortly...
[Victory]
Running time - 25:46, Tracks: 11
[Notable tracks: Wake the Dead, Talk is Cheap, Our Distance, Final Goodbye]
Victory Records - http://www.victoryrecords.com
