I don't really know what you'd call this, to me, it sounds like a combination of screamo and indie rock, though I hate to use the term "screamo" because these days it's being copped and bastardized more than ever before by fucking Spin and Rolling Stone and who knows what other morons. But musically it's pretty raw and abrasive material with distorted screaming vocals, but it's melodic and driving as well, it's not as caustic as a lot of these bands tend to be. The writing is pretty fluid, complete with some calmer breaks (check out the excellent "Snooze Button Symphony") and great bass runs that don't really duplicate the guitars at all. I like the songwriting a lot. "Yesterday's Plan to Sabotage Tomorrow" combines jangly guitars and plunky bass with dissonant melodies to create a darker atmosphere than most of the other tracks offer, and there's a lot of promise there. While the more somber "After the Last Page" begins with calmly ringing clean guitars and slowly builds up into more explosive and rhythmic bursts. The recording is good for this style. The drums are dry and natural, there's fairly mild distortion over the guitars, the bass has a distinct tone that's dense but precise, and the vocals fall in line with the instruments without being at all overpowering. I don't think I'd really change anything per se. This is the limited edition (hand-numbered of only 100 copies) summer tour edition of the EP, so the CD comes in a slick little cardboard digipack sleeve with dark brown ink printed on the front and back, and a small transparency insert tucked in with the CD. Recording information is included, but lyrics are not (though according to the insert it sounds like the regular pressing of the CD does in fact contain the lyrics). Not bad at all. A quite nice EP in fact.
[Bug]
Running time - 14:14, Tracks: 4
[Notable tracks: Snooze Button Symphony, Yesterday's Plan to Sabotage Tomorrow]
Bug Empire - http://www.bugempire.com
