Burly metallic hardcore from California. I wasn't too taken by their material on the split CD with Fall From Grace, and I feel similarly about this. It's definitely not bad, but something's missing. It's fairly straightforward heavy hardcore with lots of mosh parts and unique screaming vocals that I really like, but it's just sort of boring. Nothing grabs me for whatever reason. Faster tracks like "This World" lean towards an old school sort of sound and even have some punk influences at work, which is really cool, but at the same time it doesn't really fit - most of the songs are similar to one another, and these standouts are a little out of place. The production's okay, but it still needs tweaking. The drums sound a bit better this time out, and I like the vocals as well, but the bass isn't always as prominent, and I don't think the guitar is really working. It's not thick or controlled enough, it's slightly dirty and the texture seems off. They'd probably be fine if they could fix up the guitar sound, though. I really like the design on this one. The black and white color scheme looks great, and everything is really crisp. The text is clean and legible, the imagery is pretty bleak and has a lot of nice texture to it, etc. As for the content of the songs, it's largely personal and ranges from pretty bleak attacks to dealing more with an underlying hint of hope, but just barely. "I watch you run, that mask fits you so well, I'm not sorry I turned my back, I'm sure we both had some fucked up pasts, Our only difference is I'm still standing..." Tough call. I really like the vocals a hell of a lot, and there are some great tracks in here (namely "Fracture"), but for the most part I'm really bored by this CD. I'm not 100% sure why, but it just doesn't do anything for me. I'm pretty sure this band could be much better.
[Thorp]
Running time - 31:00 (approximately), Tracks: 11
[Notable tracks: Fracture, Today Tomorrow Forever]
Thorp Records - http://www.thorprecords.com
