Undercast's EP- A Mixed Bag.
The first song, "The Pull", is ordinary on the first listen, on the second listen it's absolutely gorgeous, but after that I keep changing my mind. Sometimes there are touches of emo about it in singer Nick Santone's voice, and the tone is melancholy but the pounding drums and driving guitars give it an edge. The chorus is the best example of this, which sounds a cut above bands like My Chemical Romance. "Extract", unfortunately, isn't as good and wanders onto that well-worn path of emo from the start and everything is just too soft and bland.
Things do pick up again on "Desecrate", and I keep getting the feeling there are references to Satanism all throughout the song. The guitars on this are like a buzz-saw, and this lends a really different sound to the track. Undercast are clearly at their best when they put throbbing drums together with forceful guitars and quiet/loud vocals however, by the fourth song, samey-ness starts creeping in. You start wishing they would experiment a bit more.
With the start of "Play Not" (and "The Pull"), I'm reminded of Pink Floyd's "The Division Bell" album - there are definitely similarities to it music-wise and it makes me go cold. The rest of the song makes me think of the Goo Goo Dolls when they did "Iris" - it's an odd mixture of styles but it seems to just about work. It's a shame that the EP is a little patchy, although as this eponymous record is their first one, they could grow to be really good.