The overtly political song titles had me expecting something in more of a traditional hardcore/punk vein from this Florida act. Instead it's blazing metalcore with a little bit of that "screamo" thing happening and a little bit of that melodic Swedish thing happening (more of the latter). Thankfully in this case the melodic Swedish stuff isn't as derivative as it usually is because they're constantly blending in other riffing styles, but they do wander into bland tremolo picking territory on occasion, and that whole aspect combined with the token throaty vocal screams does lend an unfortunate tinge of unoriginality to this material. It's really not so bad, and I like the fact that they tend to keep the songs really short (often less than two minutes), but even so... I still find myself getting a little bit bored about halfway through. It becomes one of those, "Okay, that riff is pretty awesome." (time lapse) "Ahhh, I like that part." (time lapse) "Ehhh, that's not so bad." sort of listening experiences, which is of course not optimal, especially when the CD has 13 tracks and only runs 27 minutes. The recording isn't bad aside from the fact that there's no bass at all. Everything sounds really thin because there's literally no bass. I can barely make out an ounce of it. The drums sound really nice and crisp, the guitars are a little messy, and the vocals are slightly loud - all of which is fine - but they need to crank the shit out of the bass to fill in the gaps and give this thing some punch. The CD comes in an interesting booklet that folds out from the center and then has two more small flaps that extend from each side. All of the imagery is in very high contrast so there are only three colors: Black, white, and purple. I can't really tell what's going on with the front cover, but elsewhere there are some images of gears and some tiny band photos (which look really cool). All of the lyrics are included, along with brief descriptions of each song's content. The lyrics are blatantly socio-political, and some cover more interesting topics than usual. "I Dreamt I Saw Phil Ochs Last Night", for instance, is a song about a protest singer of the 60's/70's who committed suicide due to his fears regarding the degeneration of the world at large. Few of these songs really jump out, but at the same time it's not bad... I don't know. They're tight and I can appreciate some of what they're doing, and they're absolutely 100% more intelligent and interesting lyrically than any other band out there playing this style of music, so I credit them for that. I just wish that their music wasn't so typical of the times. Were they to head more in the direction of the diverse, controlled, and emotional "How Economists Maintain the Exxon Valdez Spill Was Good for the Economy" they would absolutely be on the path to greener pastures.
[self-released]
Running time - 26:53, Tracks: 13
[Notable tracks: Weapon of Choice, How Economists Maintain the Exxon Valdez Spill Was Good for the Economy]
The Blackout Terror - http://web.tampabay.rr.com/bt13/
