Not too shabby. This self-released EP contains five tracks of dark, atmospheric metal with excellent female singing - definitely coming off like the kind of European band you'd expect to be hearing on a label like Nuclear Blast or Century Media or something (granted these folks are from Arizona - go figure). And you wouldn't really know it from looking at the packaging, which needs some work, but the level of quality here is highly fucking admirable considering this is the debut release from a very young band. The recording quality alone is impressive. The mix is pretty even throughout, the percussion sounds crisp and natural, the bass is evident in the distance behind the guitars, and all of the different guitar tones employed sound effective. The clean tones are bright and lush, the distortion is alternately heavy or a bit crispier when necessary, etc. The vocals also sound great. I'm actually really impressed by the quality of her singing. Her range and the emphasis of her arrangements could both stand to get a little more dynamic, but the actual quality of her delivery is damn near up there with a band like Lacuna Coil or something of that nature, so I'm not messing around when I compliment her talents. If I could change anything about the recording I'd probably up the bass even more and then give the distorted guitars more volume to add some contrast. There are lots of layered guitar parts with reverberated clean tones or droning lead lines over heavier midpaced rhythms, but there's not quite enough variety in the songwriting. I'm definitely into the whole moody midpaced thing, but they do need to color it up a little bit more so that things don't come off as so one-sided as far as tempo and song structure. The bassist is pretty damn good and occasionally cuts loose with a really defined run that will spice up the backbone, but they need to bring more such elements to the fore as well. Musically I could definitely cite some similarities to some of the slower and more laidback riffing from Paradise Lost circa "Draconian Times" or so, which isn't a bad jumping off point. "The Haunting" brings in some keyboards that I'm not too big on (the snazzy drum fills are a more effective accent), but the vocal performance in the track definitely gets a little more varied and interesting, which is something I'd love to hear more of. The sustained lead notes in "Burden of Bad Blood" are also highly effective. I just think that in the end there's no one song that really jumps out at you, so they need to push their writing just a little more. To be completely honest I don't care for the layout at all. The dirtier typeface used isn't so bad, while the cleaner text is a little too plain, but all of the imagery and photos are too dull and uninteresting to really be of much use. The lyrics are personal and just deal with emotional hardships and things of that nature, and my only complaint is that there's a lot of forced rhyming that really strips things down and cuts into how creative they can get with the phrasing, so the content comes off as a little too simple. I'm still very pleased with this EP, though. They'll need to work out a few kinks in order to be fully appreciated for being as professional as they are, but minor faults aside this is a strong showing from a basically unknown band. Nice work. Keep an eye on 'em.
[self-released]
Running time - 26:23, Tracks: 6
[Notable tracks: no one song particularly stands out, they're all fairly even in my book]
Lapse of Irony - http://www.lapseofirony.com
