Does anyone even take notice of genre’s anymore? The distinguishing line between Emo, pop-punk, and hardcore is seemingly blurred in todays blended world of punk music. It is becoming increasingly more common for bands to introduce all three elements into their songs, and the perfect example of this is the album I bring before you, the self titled and third album of Miami’s Glasseater.
The album seamlessly blends hook driven pop-punk with emotional lyrics, with one of the most frightening ‘screamer’ vocalists I may of heard. Hell, this guy can put the garglings of Slipknot‘s Corey Taylor to shame! But it works… Well in parts anyway. Sometimes the choice of when these angry lyrics are inserted and left out of a song can leave a little to be desired, but the overall feel of a song is complimented by the silky vocals of the exchanges between frontman and screamer. This brand of ‘screamo’ as it has been so aptly dubbed is currently the new top of the crop in the punk genre and doesn’t look like shifting anytime soon, but does this effort make any ripples in a scene flooded with angst? I personally don’t think it does.
The album starts promisingly enough with the popular ‘Medicine’ which is pure power pop-punk and is a big hit with the kids. ‘Nonsense to you, everything to us’ first introduces us to the infamous growl, but at the beginning we are taken on a rather un-inspiring punk journey before the end of the song makes you wanna lash out at the haters. The song incidentally is about the toils of life on the road and a big middle finger to those who knock you. Good message, poorly conveyed. ‘Miles Ahead’ is clichéd in parts but is one of my favorite tracks due to the superb exchanging of smooth bittersweet vocals and scowling echo of said vocals, it works wonderfully well and Glasseaters contrast between the two is one of their strong points. ‘Polar Opposites’ is a standard light affair with ‘Alone in a world without you’ opening with an intro reminiscent of Sugarcult‘s ‘Hate every beautifull day’ and drags on a bit with droning vocals blotting out any excitement.
‘The times we’ve shared forever’ puts the album in sixth gear with a seering hook opening the song before the vocal combination rip the song up for another highlight. ‘Continue on’ rather ironically carries on where the previous effort left off with the track pacy and infectious. ‘We’re the same’ screams emo-rock and carries it off fairly well, before penultimate track ‘Weekend Sellout’ brings us into a dark riff with bitter lyrics about shallowness and betrayal. ‘Cleanse’ wraps the album up in similar fashion to previous songs with bittersweet undertones over pace changes and fierce drum patterns.
What Glasseater do well is blend the two types of vocal styles together and making the album open ended enough to appeal right across the punk swamp. They stick to no particular formula for songs which works both for and against them. One criticism is that the angst filled screams do feel as they are literally pasted over the top of the song. It doesn’t quite have the fluidity of other bands but this is a minor niggle on an otherwise fine outing.
Jay