These Enzymes is the hardcore side project of two of the squeaky clean boys from the All American Rejects (Mike and Chris) and Neil Rubenstein who sang in Sons of Abraham and helps scream on the TBS albums. Having come together on one of the Rejects‘ tour last year, These Enzymes have bagged tours with TBS and Motion City Soundtrack and now release this terrific “off the wall†record on Doghouse Records.
Before going into the music, if anyone has picked up this album from somewhere, may I be the first to say, how fantastic is the art work?! For those who don’t have a donkey sniff what I’m going on about, you have got to see it to appreciate it. The sleeve is basic child like drawings on a while background of animals in legionary war formations, in battle armour. The front cover bares to rabbits looking at another who is spreading his insides out over the ground having just been massacred or something… quite original, quite bizarre… quite disturbing. Musically it’s hard to imagine members of the All American Rejects playing this sort of music, but it works well and the vocals are minted. Track 5 – Song 6 (a.k.a. Peppers Tasted Better on Rye) and track 1 – Song 4 (a.k.a. Never Talk About Politics) are the pick of the bunch on this 5 track E.P.
I don’t know what it is with Punktastic CD reviews but I always seem to get the contenders of shortest E.P of the year award. This one belts itself out in 9 minutes 34. A high percentage of the tracks you can therefore conclude aren’t even clocking in at over 2 minutes, so if you’re a fan of long winded, blown out songs, then stay away from this one. It comes and goes quicker than Christmas.
Pete
www.purevolume.com/theseenzymes