This strange demo contains but one 12-and-a-half-minute instrumental track, "Don't Mess With the Bull Young Man, You'll Get His Horns", that blends softer clean breaks with jarring metalcore pull-off riffs and intense distorted chord progressions with accents of viola or the rare appearance of piano. Such an approach is of course rather disjointed at times, but hits on some great riffs in the process. The track opens with some abstract clean riffs and an indistinguishable sample before beginning its shapeshifting process of weaving back and forth between smooth clean breaks and heavier distorted runs to varying degrees of success, and it's not until just past the eight-minute mark that another more prominent and rather bleak sample comes in. However, the end result is a bit of a tossup because there are a few severe problems with this otherwise promising and creative composition. First of all, the recording isn't cutting it at all. Everything is way too thin and dirty to get the job done, and when the viola presents itself it almost always sounds distracting and out of place due to the way the mix wavers. But I can't really hear many of the bass parts at all, the guitars are far too choppy and lack density, the drums are distant and lack resonance, etc. I know this is a D.I.Y. affair and expenses are always a consideration, but the simple fact is that these production values simply aren't good enough for what the band has to offer. Beyond that, and probably more importantly, a lot of the guitar parts are painfully sloppy - and I'm not talking "sloppy" in terms of intentionally loose or jarring. There's a little bit of that as well, and that's fine, but I'm talking sloppy as in outright mistakes or riffs that are being delivered beyond the means of the guitarist's abilities, and some of these areas certainly hurt the overall quality of the piece. The CD-R comes in a color xeroxed sleeve with a nice illustration on the cover and an insert printed on matte brown paper for credits and what appear to be lyrics, but there are no vocals in the track so I guess the content is simply to suggest what the song is about? That's cool, I actually dig that idea. I mean, I basically appreciate all of what this band is doing here, it's a very admirable and adventurous little demo, but... they've perhaps prematurely documented the song since the end result comes across as underdeveloped. It's a little more good than bad, and like I said, I respect their goals here, but while portions are really damn good, some of the riffs (perhaps ironically the ones that are the most messily performed) are downright terrible. So, there is work to be done, but I do honestly believe that these kids could create some really moving music if they hammer out all the kinks.
[self-released]
Running time - 12:33, Tracks: 1
[Notable tracks: there's only one]
The Wind Will Carry Us - [email protected]
