Why do I invest my time in searching the inner web in a never-ending hunt for new music that is going to hit the right spot? Because I know at some point in time I am going to stumble across an album that provides the kind of therapeutic release I need. Until that time I am going to have to sift through lots of mediocre albums, and some truly terrible ones that feel like more of a waste of time than they are worth. Then there are oddities like this band that I found while looking for new hard-core music and they are nothing like hard-core at all, In fact, they are more like if King Missle was a jam band. There is a tension to the upbeat humor infused in these songs, but the jangle of the guitar is not my thing, though the main deal breaker is the spoken vocals.
Right from the first song I knew if the vocals did not change there was no way I was going to manage to drag myself through an album where it sounded like I was being lectured by some nerd. Now three songs deep into the album I am not hearing that happening, but the third song is an instrumental jam. There are skilled musicians in this band, and I am open to other styles of music that deviate from what I normally listen to though this is pushing those boundaries. Five tracks in and the vocals do change to something more sung, as the guitars go into a more indie rock strum.
"2-600-Lullaby" is more garage-flavored jangling indie rock, with some adequate guitar runs in it. The vocals are once again spoken, which gives the song a bland feeling. They take things in a more punk direction where the vocal delivery is more shouted for "Abandoned by the Narrator' which goes from punk to a spazzy garage version of math rock. It is the album's best song so far. "the Ascent" has the spoken version of the vocals again but this time they are phrased in a more fabulous manner that makes me think the vocalist is gay. This is an improvement over the previous spoken vocals. If you are going to do this sort of thing make sure a queen is doing it as it will have more dynamic flare. The vocals are revolved b between the band's members so some are more capable on the mic than others. Perhaps the vocal duties should be handled in a less democratic manner.
"Big Guitar Jackoff in the Sky" is rather flaccid and more of a jam. Having covered more metal than any other genre, the expectations of much higher when it comes to the kind of shredding you assume would be dominating a big guitar jack-off in the sky. I will give this album a 7.5, as musically this is pretty decent for what it is, and has some original ideas that suffer from the overall poor vocal execution.
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