Death Is Not GlamorousAll the way from Oslo, Norway comes this quintet who features members of Damage Control. They play positive melodic hardcore in the vein of early Saves The Day, Lifetime and late Turning Point. Their demo that was re-released by the US label State of Mind was showered with praise throughout the underground.
"Undercurrents" is their follow up to their demo and it includes 6 songs of moderately paced melodic hardcore with extremely positive lyrics about making the best of your life. At times I was really feeling these songs, especially "Call It In The Air" and "Second Step" which really highlight the bands more hardcore roots and vocals as well. But in songs like "The Three C's" and "Foreground" the band goes straight for the emo sound, vocals included. And the vocals really annoyed me in these tracks. I'm sure they probably sound better in their native tongue, but what I'm hearing annoyed the shit out of me they sounded too whiney and forced. One moment I feel like I'm listening to a hardcore band than the next I'm listening to some emo band, there isn't any grey area, it's way too black and white.
The lyrics are really on the posi side of the spectrum but I like that every now and then, especially if I'm feeling in the dumps I'll but on the extremely optimistic GB's "Start Today" and lyrically this is one of those kind of records. Now don't get it twisted I am not comparing these guys to GB, because they aren't even close but they do have some feel good lyrics. There are no cheesy break up songs what so ever, thank god they didn't take that from Saves The Day.
The production quality is good, it has no glaring problems in the recording. The guitar has a nice tone, especially for what they are playing. The bass sounds great making use of a nice twangy sound. The percussion sounds crisp and dense, no complaints there. The vocals were mixed effectively into the overall mix.
A great white and an giant octopus more often than not will result in a cool ass layout and this is no exception. The layout is extremely colorful and eye catching, the majority of the layout is sea blue with loads of orange used for the octopus and the deep sea diver. Judging by the front cover which shows the octopus showering the shark with it's oil and than strangling it on the back of the tray art, the octopus comes out victorious. The inside of the booklet was well done, using black text boxes to display the lyrics to all of the songs and a cool little beach scene with a sea turtle and some of the trendy contrasted dots that seem to be everywhere these days. Cool shit.
Rating: 2.5/5
Songs Worthy of Replay: Call It In The Air (only appears on the CD version not the 7", funny because this is my favorite song) Second Step
Thesis: This record has a lot of positives but at the same time, a lot of negatives. The layout and production is stellar. The lyrics are quality, lots of uplifting words. The music at times can be great but at others terribly cheesy and generic, same can be said about the vocals. Ah this will either be a hit or miss with a lot of people, whereas I fall in the middle because I can appreciate the quality lyrics and when the band is good musically they are good. I just wish the vocalist would stick with one style rather than jumping from emo to hardcore, I prefer the latter.