My first go round with the debut of Rescuer on Rise Records I had almost written the band off as just another screaming voice in the swell of Hardcore bands out there. I admit I probably owe this quick judgment to the fact that I have been overwhelming myself with Hardcore since, for some reason, my ipod has put all the hardcore stuff I have as songs to be played first. What about that Ipod? Anyway I wasn’t quite prepared I guess.

My second go round I was out of my car, the usual arena for music listening, and at my computer with my super awesome headphones my wife bought me for Christmas. It was here that the bands efforts hit me full on. It wasn’t just screaming and sounds as if the band had just thrown their instruments down a flight of stairs a few dozen times.

The guitar work on this album is somewhat remarkable as it steps outside of the genre norm. It seemed to me to be all over the place from melodic alternative to rock to metal and more. My second go round I somehow got stuck on the guitars, enjoying the change ups, the mixture of style, the effect it had on the tracks as a whole. Refreshing.

By my third listen I was really getting into the drums. So not the usual sound of the drummer whipping his sets as like it stole something. Not the usual tandem noise of kick pedal, snare, kick pedal, snare, in angry passionate fast forward monotony. The drums here had focus, complexity, and like the guitars, didn’t seem to find themselves tied down by the genres traditional schemes.

Vocals are traditional hardcore, I can hardly understand some of the things the vocalist is saying, and as usual no lyric sheet to guide me, but in the mix of things it works. It’s your standard vocal style made all he more easy to swallow alongside the infectiousness of the bands overall musical sound. Well worth checking out.  Enjoy.