Before commenting on the music, first let me take a moment to comment on the album artwork and the physical records themselves. Let me say that I am officially enamored with this album’s presentation. Double gatefold sleeves, with coloring, cartooning and scripting reminiscent of Shel Silverstein’s artwork in The Giving Tree (one of the finest children’s books ever, I might add), give way to two striking 10” discs inside. The first is a lovely green and black marble record, and the second is colored in yellow and black marbling. I must say that before listening to the album, I got the feeling that if the same effort was spent in creating the music as was dedicated to putting together such remarkable album artwork and visually appealing records themselves, I would be in for something special. Musically, this release does not disappoint. What we have here are eight big, powerful, mega-epic emotional hardcore jams, in the vein of bands like Yaphet Kotto or Mohinder. Screaming and sincere vocals with personal, poetic lyrics that are accompanied by heavy and bombastic playing so tight it sounds as if it’s ready to burst open and spill all over the place. This sounds like they would have fit in perfectly ten years ago on Ebullition or Gravity. Very well done all around, this would be a nice pick-up for those of you who haven’t traded in all of your hardcore albums for pop punk records yet.
–Jeff (Adagio 830)