I Really Need a Job

The title and general sentiment of "I Really Need A Job" is something I can relate to. I could really use some employment after depleting much of my funds on cheap beer and late nights. After seeing the title of this, I assumed that this would be another geeky prog track with faux-comical lyrics. This juvenile spirit still persists with the "we are not currently accepting applications" skit at the end, but whatever, it fits in with the subject matter and these guys are still really young.

Although the occasional good idea was present, the 2012 demo was largely a clusterfuck of relatively incoherent composition and random prog tropes awkwardly dolloped all over the place. Quite simply put - there was too much fucking around. The good ideas were drowned out by unnecessary "expansive" passages and rather self indulgent progisms that weren't really pulled off convincingly. This time they hunkered down and cut the bullshit. This is still rather dorky, especially in the lyrics (which are easy enough to ignore) but this is an all around more cohesive and improved effort. The production has taken an immense leap forward and there are zero meandering proggy passages that go nowhere.

They have enlisted the help of a guest vocalist for the clean singing, and this is a good move on their part. These clean vocals are much less awkward and geeky than those present on the previous demo. These ones are relatively high pitched and smooth, completely free of any nasally undertones. The middle of the road harsh vocals aren't really any different than the demo. There is much more in the way of actual riffs here and everything flows very nicely. The integration between clean and metal sections are done nicely, and lack the scattered sloppiness of their previous works. The catchy bass line in the beginning immediately makes it apparent that this band is improving.

Yes, this is still kind of dorky, it's still apparent that it's made by goofy teenagers, but I find it hard to hate or even dislike. It's well put together, the feeble pointless proggy crap is largely gone and the production is surprisingly convincing. This probably isn't going to drift into my regular listening, but it is quite listenable, and this is coming from a guy who was never that big a fan of the style they play.