Strange... this EP is part very fucking cool and part pretty damn terrible. This is straight metal that sort of combines traditional metal with Pantera type stuff without necessarily sounding like either particular style. Musically it's both heavy and melodic, with a hint of simple thrash, a few interesting chord phrasings, and some classic metal riffing on occasion. But despite some great parts, the complete songs aren't that good, and I really dislike the vocals a lot. It's not singing, nor is it shouting... it's right in between, with some singing backup vocals and a few spurts of near growls/screams. And, to be totally honest, I think pretty much all of the vocals are crap, definitely sort of holding back any potential the music holds. The solos are the worst though, using this insanely crisp and fiery lead tone that's mixed hard into the left channel and way louder than the rhythm guitars... totally obnoxious. The solos are crap too, sort of combining the noisy Slayer style with fast melodic scales or something. Since the rhythms are often so fucking cool I'm shocked that the leads are basically complete garbage. "Brand New Life" is a well written song that proves to me that this band has a lot working for 'em, but the god damn vocals just tear the song to shreds. I like the vocal patterns and that notes that he's trying to hit, but... it comes off as forced and cheesy. Great song, though. Very well put together. "Killing a Friend" breaks out the southern tinged Pantera riffs, and "The Awakening" opens with clean guitars, covering the rest of their bases, but all of these songs are structurally faulted. To me, "Brand New Life" is a perfect song, it just needs the overall performance to back it. Production? Not great. Not awful, but not great. I can live with the guitar tone, and the bass sounds okay. The drums are unbalanced but tolerable, but the vocals are too loud and separated from the mix. It just needs cleaning up to smooth over the gaps and rough spots. The layout's pretty clean and simple but it definitely looks like a self-released effort. There's a shotgun on the cover, which appears to be computer generated, the band photos aren't very good, they use way, way too many different fonts, etc. There's a photo of some bullets under the CD, and that looks better - probably would've made a nicer cover. Lyrically the songs are pissed off, but they're too immature for me: "You live a life of greed, And you think it suits you well, But rest assured my friend, I'll see you burn in hell..." Well, I don't know what to say. This is a rare breed of CD where the potential for the band is so fucking vast, but they could also totally fuck it up and waste their time stagnating where they are. I would immediately suggest either tossing the solos or significantly increasing the lead player's ability to write solos, and vocally I would have the singer stop doing the faux aggressive shit to focus on learning how to sing forcefully and effectively without that out of place rock twang. Who knows what the future holds?
[self-released]
Running time - 26:57, Tracks: 5
[Notable tracks: Brand New Life]
Hold on Humanity - http://www.holdonhumanity.com
