I’ve always thought of VersaEmerge to be more Circa Survive than Paramore, despite their label’s traditional “sound”, and if anything, ‘Fixed At Zero’ cements that belief. Don’t get me wrong, there are melodies and choruses, but this isn’t your traditional pop-punk record. VE can play, they can mess around with song structures and time signatures and they’re far more interesting musically than the vast majority of bands around right now. The sad thing is there are just too many songs on this record that show promise but ultimately miss the spot.
Sierra Kusterbeck is a good frontwoman. She’s passionate and the fire in her belly is a lesson to any young singer – sing like you mean it. But what she’s singing doesn’t always translate as well as it could, and maybe should, do. ‘Mind Reader’, for instance, keeps on hinting that it’s going to be a great song but never quite reaches it. It’s not the only song that falls into this trap. ‘Redesign Me’ has a Tim Burton-esque intro but never really hits the spot, while ‘Stranger’ seems a little out of place and ruins the flow somewhat. There are good songs though – the title track is perhaps the most instant of the lot, while ‘Fire (Aim Your Arrows High’) features more vocals from guitarist Blake and the trade-off works well.
VersaEmerge at least haven’t fallen into the trap of writing overly commercial, pop-punk songs to fit a core Warped Tour audience. They’ve been brave and written an interesting record that’s sadly a bit hit and miss. Still, I’d rather listen to this than identikit NeverShoutNever rip-offs…