Sometimes there's nothing like great production to make a record. Case in point; the new Earshot record. Their brand of power-chord rock cuts through the butter of my roommate's Bright Eyes mix cd like a Bowie Knife pulled straight from the flames. Thick drumming that hits in the gut with every strap across the tom and kick to the bass drum, perfectly in sync.
Do you really care if the drums were adjusted with sensors? It just sounds solid. The guitars are razor sharp--think Data from Star Trek playing "Youth of the Nation". It's Strung Out's Mesa Boogie tone meets Orgy's red-headed stepchild Lincoln Dark in a steel cage death match. And it's all right, you know?
"I'm so sick of being on my own. This feels like suicide. I feel so dead inside." Ok, so the lyrics aren't going to win a Pulitzer. Or help in dispelling an inevitable comparison with the aforementioned lords of the clenched-fist-striking-chest passionate rap rock spinoffs, Linkin Park. Wil Martin's voice does at times sound undeniably like Chester Bennington.
Earshot are not just taking a walk in the Park though. Theirs is a much more straight-forward jam. A smorgasbord of accessible American gothic rock. Not Marilyn Manson; a true gothic--dark, desperate, a bit over the top.
Emotional excess aside, I like it. Something in the production, the comfortably predictable rhythms, the tightness, its ability to set a mood.
Guilty pleasure? I don't know if I believe in the term.
2/4
Similar sounding releases
2003Lucerin BlueTales of the Knife
2005The Black MariaLead Us To Reason
2004BlindsideAbout A Burning Fire
2004Breaking BenjaminWe Are Not Alone
2002Our Lady PeaceGravity
2003OutspokenBitter Shovel
