Five very young, wholesome-looking kids who have utilized the unfortunate sonic attack of nü-metal dorks like Enter Shikari. Pretty, sweet vocals give way to yowling, over-produced screamo stylings—another namedrop that works: Escape The Fate. This is terrible, terrible stuff. They namedrop God, iPhones and iTunes, they have witty song titles, and yet the lyrics themselves are bland and totally interchangeable—they all seem to be lamentations towards a lost love, but I can’t be sure. The band is clearly suffering from Bad Religion Syndrome—all the songs sound remarkably similar. They can clearly play the fuck out of their instruments and are possibly very sweet dudes, but that’s not necessarily a free pass. I’m sure there’s an audience for this type of stuff—Epitaph and AP Magazine seem to indicate as much—but Razorcake’s definitely not one of them. Steer clear.
–keith (Indianola)