It’s fairly obvious by now that I detest this current rash (oh please let it just be a fad, a trend, something that will STOP SOON) of emo/core/etc that seems to hold the scene in its grip. Having said that, I’m always open to something new or different that sufficiently displays enough balls and confidence to strike out in a new direction, which is what this EP is singularly lacking. The only comfortably natural part of all the four tracks is the punchy intro to ‘September ‘03′, a genuinely energetic mix of screeching guitars and a driving bassline that frustratingly dissolves almost as soon as it has begun into an emo-by-numbers breakdown.
Every part of this CD sounds like it’s been pasted from another band – check the insipid FFAF melodies on ‘Bulleit’ appropriately subtitled by strategically placed screaming, superfluous natural guitar harmonics and a thoroughly uninspiring structure that adds positively nothing to the genre. I know how hard it is for a young band to try and find their own sound when it’s so easy to revert to other bands who have done it all before, but when the juddering time changes on ‘(21314) Your Delusion’ sounds so much like Give Up The Ghost over the top of At The Drive-In it’s hard to see From This Drive being unique in any way. Obviously I’m not proposing that they should be able to cover new musical ground immediately, but it all sounds so hackneyed and ripped off. It’s not as if they’re taking inspiration from GUTG or ATD-I, it’s like they’re just lifting sections and playing them verbatim.
The whine of ‘Thirty’ quickly grates with the dialogue between the screaming and the singing (why is it that the singing in all these bands is so nasal and drawn out?!) and by this point I’m gagging for something with a shred of originality. I’m sure that if they applied themselves to trying something a bit different then From This Drive might be not quite as bad as this demo suggests, but as it stands, they’re pretty damn lame.
Ben
www.fromthisdrive.co.uk