Three tracks of metalcore-ish indie rock kind of stuff with a mix of plain clean guitars and thick melodic distorted chords along with singing vocals, shouting/screaming backup vocals, and a few subdued metal riffs. They definitely blend their influences well, with dissonance remaining under control, chunky rhythms making a few appearances amidst layered clean passages with jazzy percussion and forceful basslines, etc. It's really fairly good from a songwriting standpoint, things flow well and there are some great passages, but I think the performances definitely need cleaning up to be totally effective. The rhythm section is pretty much on point throughout, especially the drummer (who's really quite good), but a lot of the guitar parts can get a little choppy. Some of that falls on the shoulders of the recording, which also needs minor work, but... it's not a big deal. I think for the most part the mix and the tones sound alright, the basslines could stand to be more prominent since they're very important to the song structures, and the percussion could be smoothed over. But I like the rawness of the vocals and the general crispness of the guitars. The guitar tones need a little more character to sort of get rid of some of the choppy bite that the textures can have when certain picking patterns are employed, but for a relatively brief EP it all works out. The tracks average right around six minutes each, which is definitely a little long, but they actually pull it off nicely. "El Sabor de la Calle (Extended Version)" is probably the most laidback track, flowing more consistently than the others, and inching out front as a bit stronger as a result. Though "The Locust Have No King" is also nice with some of its catchier metallic smatterings. The professionally duplicated CD-R comes in a standard jewel case with a minimal layout that consists entirely of medical diagrams of heads and hands with worn looking text displaying the tracklist and credits. No lyrics or anything like that are included, so I'm unsure as to what the content would reveal since the song titles are on the unusual side. Not bad. I didn't know what to expect, but there's potential here. I'm not blown away, but there's enough happening to hold my interest, and I'd wager they could really do something worth looking into the next time around.
[Doll House]
Running time - 18:11, Tracks: 3
[Notable tracks: El Sabor de la Calle (Extended Version)]
Doll House Recordings - http://www.dollhouseinc.com
