InTheDark are a tricky little nut to crack. How do you review a band who literally doesn’t give a shit about what anyone thinks of them, but by doing this, their material sounds contrived and ever so slightly patronising? The quartet obviously have a message to spread, but to the defeatist amongst us, it sounds a little to forced and while there are no illusions of grandeur, they may think their EP is more important than it actually is.
The attitude laden opener is prime example of self importance as chunks of spoken word vocals dominate followed by crashing guitars, which actually work quite well, save for sounding a little off key. The messages and anthems continue on ‘Vocalism’ while the best is reserved for ‘The Gardening Year’ which crashes and fumbles its way through moments of calm serene into the kind of menacing meaningful angst that scene kids in scene bands can only hope for. ‘In Perfect Condition’ proves the weakest of the lot while ‘Navy Notepad’ proves the most surreal with some peculiar vocals giving the track a different more relaxed vibe.
In regards to the sound, it needs to be slightly more focused in what it wants to achieve. The guitars often sound muzzled and the vocals veer from good to bad in a matter of seconds but it’s a competent EP which will find solace in the fact it is diverse and just about different enough to anything else which is currently happening around the country.
Jay