Swiss quartet Archers and Arrows initially left me feeling intrigued but easily distracted during the first couple of plays of their self-titled EP. However, as is often the way, a 10 day hiatus from listening to the five tracks has obviously helped me acclimatise to what the band is doing and therefore more able to keep my mind on one thing: the music. At first, this release came across as fairly generic punk with pop leanings, which would probably have more to offer the younger generation who listen to music (bands that generally I would not even use the "p" word to describe) but with that time away from the CD, it's now starting to take a different shape, and one which I am finding both agreeable and in the majority of places, quite enjoyable.

The opening track, "It's So Cool, We Will All Die Together," really does showcase the variety of influences that Archers and Arrows have and that the band is not taking a narrow view to the music it makes. This has the more upbeat melodic punk sound as the spine of the song, with hints of indie and metal hanging on in places. In fact, that really goes for all five tracks, with some taking on more of one approach than others, as well as utilizing a number of different vocal stylings throughout.

There is no denying that Archers and Arrows are traveling a well furrowed track and that there is no new sub-genre being worked on here, but there are some undeniably strong songs on this release, with the aforementioned "It's So Cool, We Will All Die Together" probably being the highlight. I would hasten to add that both "The Support" and "Truncated Humanism" don't lag that far behind in terms of quality, especially as they both keep the variation of styles going, and in a way that doesn't seem forced. In fact, it would be easy to name check all five tracks so I guess my advice is seek this out for yourself and see what you think.

Archers and Arrows have done well with this release, a decent blend of European and American punk with the odd tangent included here and there that manages to come across as an honest attempt to not get stuck in a rut despite not providing anything remarkably different. To give some kind of loose comparisons I'd go for Bangers and As We Sink! from the U.K. mixed with elements of Samiam and Thursday from the other side of the Atlantic, and that's not a bad thing. Great cover art too.