In some moments this British hard core band is like an emo version of Snapcase. The chorus is sweetly sung. Midway they allow themselves to break into melodic atmosphere. There is still enough of a hard core hammering to make them at least on par with a band like Boy Sets Fire. "Shedding Skin" shows the guitarists know what they are doing. The verse breaks down into something more alternative, before stomping back into hard core. They begin to lean harder into the emo side of what they do on "Lost in Static" . The fact they are singing about space ships makes me excuse the almost pop punk direction. The guitar is more aggressive on "Rewire", but the vocals stay pop punk until the chorus.
"Low Season" is the single from this album. It is more accessible. I like the few bars he goes into his lower more grunge era voice. It is a well written song, might not be hard core but there is plenty of groove. "Passenger" has more in your face punchy groove to it. Yes there is a 90s alternative feel in the middle, and this album tends to split it down the middle on which way they want to go. They are more of a Helmet place with the syncopation of "King of My Domain". The first notable guitar solo is on this song, if there were others up to this point they did not make an impression. They know good and well Helmet has a song of the same name. It's a strummed , ballad of sorts.
"Staring at the Sun" finds them coming back with more bite. They back off on the more melodic chorus, but it would have been harder for the to explode any louder than where they were at. At the center if all the trappings were stripped away from the last two songs they would be hard core. But I am glad the trappings are in place that obscure this fact as that is what makes this band stand out from all the other hard core bands I have heard lately. I will give this album a 9.5 , I am glad they decided to make themselves stand out.
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