The Body Rampant is a project centered around musician J.M. Lopez, who's been releasing one-off EPs sporadically since 2009 or so. Dude sounds like he's big into modern emo/its more rocking offshoots, and for many, that's probably an instant turnoff. But as his newest (and most realized) effort, Transient Years, shows, he's got chops and navigates his tastes into fairly enjoyable musical concoctions.

The Transient Years EP lies somewhere between the knotty guitars and swirling melodies of As Cities Burn circa Come Now Sleep and the more stadium-aiming snarl of major label-era Saosin. Opener "Sativa" begins with some nimble finger-tapping, and if you knew nothing about the Body Rampant before this EP, you'd think you've stumbled into the latest math pop phenom. But what follows is a far more straightforward, pounded beat with pretty typical, distorted guitars and some soaring, melodic vocals.

That track largely sets the tone for Transient Years: plenty of unexpected little turns, head-bobbing riffs and lightly nasal singing. The band doesn't grab the listener by the throat at any real point, but tastefully layered tracks like the easygoing "Indica" and especially the more tense, rocking "Midwest Mistrust" (which appeared on 2009's Framework).

As a formal debut, more or less, this is a solid start for the Body Rampant.

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Transient Years EP