The press release describes A Day To Remember as “embracing both mosh and pop a la Saves The Day“, but I’m buggered if this lot sound anything like Chris Conley and co whatsoever. I mean they sing and play guitars, but that’s about where the similarities end. Florida’s ADTR sound a little like their state peers in Underoath, or a little less chaotic version of From First To Last – in other words, more of the same of this screaming post-hardcore nonsense that’s been going on for far too long now. To be fair, at times ADTR are pretty good at what they do and the balance between the aggressive shouting and the more melodic singing is met pretty well, but when you consider there’s a stack of bands out there doing the exact same thing – some of whom covered this kinda thing several years ago – it makes you wonder why bands keep churning out the same old stuff.
The saving grace for the band is that ‘and their name was treason’ does contain some good songs which makes them worthy of checking out, although I doubt they’ll become your favourite new band. ‘Your Way With Words Is Through Silence‘ is as good as anything Underoath have produced, while ‘A Second Glance’ and ‘You Should Have Killed Me When You Had The Chance’ have lots and lots of melodies, which when off-set by some pretty off-kilter drums and guitar riffs, make for good songs. But these are few and far between and the obvious and the cliched sadly come to the surface all too often. This is a tired genre and it’s not going to be too long before ’emo’ becomes the new nu-metal and implodes…
www.myspace.com/adaytoremember
Indianola Records
Paul