Reviews

This second release from California's Killing the Dream was produced by the legendary J. Robbins (Jawbox, Burning Airlines, Government Issue), so one should know what to expect from him. However, when the vocals of Eli Horner come in on "Part II (Motel Art)," it's a huge letdown. This feeling pervades the rest of the record because, simply put, he cannot sing. This tends to reflect badly on the whole band and consequently, the record.

The one saving grace is the instrumentation from the others, guitarists DJ Rogers and Patrick Guild, bassist Chris Chase and drummer Isaac Fratini. The power of these four almost more than makes up for Eli's total lack of a voice; songs like "Consequence (What Comes Next)" and the title track bring the band's potential into focus.

But, again, this record, apart from Eli's voice, is hard to judge because it's so damn short lasting only 23 minutes. The fact that the band has pushed only one song to over four minutes shows their limitations, though it also represents an ability to think outside the box, at least temporarily.

As a result of the vocals being the same in every damn song and never changing once, it's hard to take this band seriously. The musicianship, however, is more on the positive side because throughout the whole record, the band is capable of playing really well, despite their circumstances.

This record is decent, but not that decent and that's mainly because of the vocals, which are so terrible it pretty much makes the record unlistenable. And that's all that can be said about this band and their record.