Man The Change is a melodic punk/hardcore band hailing out of Brooklyn, NY. This self-released album is their first full-length after a pair of EPs, and it is clear that these guys have some talent going for them. All of the songs feature catchy, hook-laden riffs behind vocalist Mario Trolano’s sing-shouting. While their sound easily fits the formula for melodic-but-angry hardcore, heard many times over, Man The Change plays their own take on the style. While I was rather stoked on this the first few times I listened to it, it got a bit stale after multiple listens. While each of the songs had catchy hooks to get your head moving, too many of them sounded similar to one another, causing them to blend into each other after repeated listens. That said, I don’t think Weather the Storm is a bad album, just that perhaps the band should have waited a little longer after releasing their EPs before diving headlong into writing a full-length. If the best of the songs here (“Bowser’s Breakdown,” and one or two more), had appeared on an EP, I think this would have been an outstanding EP. As a full-length, the additional songs make it feel a bit lackluster.
–Paul J. Comeau (Man The Change, manthechange.bandcamp.com)