Listen up, young bands: There is no better way to dig your own grave than to sound like everyone else. The Dead Season, while not an awful band, are extremely criminal of this cardinal sin of unoriginality.

It's metalcore, very plain metalcore at that. You've got your double bass, your shrieking, your breakdowns, and your anthemic pieces. It's got bits of Zao, As I Lay Dying, and Evergreen Terrace. So what's not to like? Basically, this comes down to a judgment call: If you like all metalcore, you'll like this. If you're sick of a lot of music that the "scene" has been puking out every so often, then chances are you should probably avoid this band at all costs. I'm with the latter; this isn't the plague, but more like a decently bad case of the clap.

The nail in the coffin for these New Jersey upstarts is that nothing in any song particularly stands out. Even at your most attentive, the seventeen-minute EP flies by without notice. Granted, the screaming sounds rather nice, resembling more Saetia than Evergreen Terrace (ironically, vocalist Ernie Trent has since been replaced by a more generic screamer *sigh*), and the assorted clean guitar parts are also a welcome, but every other aspect of the band's debut effort goes by unnoticed. The music simply fails to jump out and really attack you, like a quality hardcore record should. The breakdowns are tame and uninteresting, and the drumming is predictable, save a rather sweet rhythm displayed in the intro of "Through The Eyes Of…" Each song blends into the other, and without a distinct and explosive beginning or end to the album, it simply seems as if the band is just going through the motions. Chalk this up to being juvenile, if you must. The most complete song on this EP is by and large "Through The Eyes Of…," which is, in all fairness, a rather exceptional hardcore song. Unfortunately, the Dead Season fail to capture the magic of that one song through four others, creating a sensation of let-down.

You could do worse than the Dead Season, who seem to be jumping to the front of the local New Jersey hardcore scene, but you could also do much, much better. There are few flashed of good things to come, but ultimately, this is a bore.

Click here to listen to "When Grey Skies Fall," "While I Breathe, I Hope," and their newest song, "With Me."

A quick note - the new song (I am unsure whether or not it is being included on the original copies of the album of not) features a new vocalist and *gulp* singing, which leads me to believe that the band is heading in what seems to be the wrong direction, especially considering that "With Me" is infinitely less interesting than anything to be found on the Spilling My Thoughts Of You EP. Take notice.