This is a reissue of Every Time I Die's debut EP, and the band has come a long way, because I'm not really into this, though I think most of their newer material is pretty good. On this particular release they were still doing dissonant metalcore with lots of chaotic riffing and tons of changes, but the writing was far less focused, making for a rather generic and cluttered listen that comes off as boring and jumbled. A few of the songs really drag on for far too long and go nowhere amidst riff after riff with no real sense of structure, but beyond that the riffs just aren't that strong either. Now and then a cool little melodic break or clean passage will pop up, and a few of the chunkier rhythms aren't so bad, but the hammer-on/pull-off junk, discordant chords and frantic textures, and annoying screaming vocals are all very typical and do nothing for me. "Prom Song" hits on some faster tempos that harness much more energy than most of the playing herein, but even that doesn't save the track as a whole. And the brief spurts of singing vocals in "Your Touch Versus Death" and "Morphine Season" are awful, coming off like some half-assed monotone Alice in Chains impression or something. No thanks. The recording's on the muddy side but gets the job done. The bass tone is ultra thick and pushes forward when the basslines get a little more involved and stray from mirroring the guitars, the guitars are decent, etc. The vocals are definitely too muffled and the drums kind of jump out a touch, but were the songs good I wouldn't be too taken aback by the sound quality at all. I'm not sure if this is a new layout or not, but I'm guessing not since it has a slightly dated look to it and is a little plain, with generic images of guns and bullets and typical metalcore fare that's less like the band's present work in the graphic design department. Lyrically things are as abstract as usual, but certainly less interesting or sarcastic, with lots of typical metaphors for personal turmoil and relationship problems that don't click with me. You'd think they might've remastered or repackaged it, but I don't think they really did anything to spice it up for the re-release. No big deal, though. Hell, this is a pretty insignificant EP anyway. Sure, it shows the band's roots and hints at where they are now, but the writing is definitely not up to speed on this thing. Stick with their new stuff and pass on this one unless you're either insufferably curious or an enormous fan of the band that happened to miss this the first time around.
[Undecided]
Running time - 19:57, Tracks: 5
[Notable tracks: no complete track hits me, it's all a mishmash]
Undecided Records - http://www.undecidedrecords.com
