Flesh and Circuits,
Cyan FictionIt's becoming increasingly difficult to review CDs that we receive at Punktastic. It's not because our collective talents are on the wane, but because every bloody band sounds the same. I know it sounds cliched (and I used to hate dodgy comparisons to other bands when I read reviews), but seriously, if I hear another Taking Back Sunday clone (the newest trend is to throw in a healthy dose of keys or synth too) I will quite possibly crush the disc with my bare hands. There's overkill and there's smothering a musical genre and starving it of any kind of oxygen.
That's what most of these bands are doing. It means the few innovators left in the 'emo' scene are the shining beacons that everyone should watch and admire. However, those bands who attempt to be original and different are massively in the minority - it seems difficult for bands nowadays to so anything new (or well, it would seem). Europeans Cyan Fiction not only have a dodgy name, but they also have a dodgy sound. Don't get me wrong, this six-track EP is well produced and well put together, but it's post-hardcore, with keys, by numbers. The screams are all in the right places, the vocals are catchy and the verse/chorus/verse structure will surely win a lot of fans. But it's as safe as houses, predictable and ultimately very forgettable.
Vocalist Robert Parent sounds like the chap from Rufio, fronting a band that have probably listened to Thursday and all the other pioneers of this dead genre too many times. Had this EP come out in 2002, I might have been more generous. But instead I heard this CD 10 minutes ago and I know full well I'm going to hear it again as soon as I pick up the next demo. Songs like 'At The Recovery Store' aren't bad, they're just boring. Ironically Cyan Fiction have a song called 'Last Life' - they could easily have written this song about a genre on its last legs...
Paul
