Emo-tastic!
Certainly in Emo territory here and there's certainly a lot of the "Hardcore" aspect if the first track, "Full Tilt Boogie" is anything to go by. Not counting "First Avenue" since it's only 37 seconds long. Judging by the cover, half the band are about 14 and extremely annoying looking, but the voice is pretty damn mean, least when it's growling. Of course, being Emo, it doesn't stay that way for long. "Naked Girl Avalanche" certainly fits the bill with it's slight girl bashing. Fair enough really. I didn't really expect that much. And I think that's the main problem. We all know about My Chemical Romance and I have to admit, Helena was catchy and fun to take the piss out of, but there's little here on this album that stands out in the same way.
"Let Your Body Take Over" seems to be the definitive song of the album. It's both up and down and has a couple of catchy hooks in there, though you are straining to hear them at points. "Baby you're my bad habit" seems to be back into the drone of the rest of the album. Maybe it's the fact that today is Valentines or something but it's not doing much to lift my spirits or even make them worse (isn't emo supposed to do that?). Despite "Let Your Body Take Over" being somewhat appealing to those looking for musical novelty, it cannot change the fact that here's an album packed with awkward moments of "heard this before." Take your average mix of dull singing and absolutely forced screaming, tedious harmony and half-assed anger, some embarrassing-beyond-belief boyband-at-posing pictures, and a strangely flawed production – and here's your half hour of plain bad cookie-cutter screamo.
Sure, this band can support other bands like Hawthorne Heights and the like, but really. Is there anything too catchy here? I'm not saying everyone has to be original but please, despite the tightness of the band (they can play) I'm not feeling it. The slow melody of "Firecracker Four Letter Lie" is nice, but it's no Seether. The solo it breaks into isn't exactly ground breaking. It's better than the rest of the guitar work on the album I feel but perhaps too little too late.
You'll hear worse, much worse, but you'll hear better. There is nothing here, not even for the Emo fan really. Sure it's tight, and its not downright awful in a technical sense. But it seems too fake. The growling is impressive in its own right but doesn't fit. The drumming 'aint bad but not too varied, the guitar playing competent but not catchy. Yeah, maybe this band just needs to mature and find something they can really moan about.