Well, at least now I know what to listen to when I need some good background music.

Alright, so that’s a little bit meaner than I was intending, but it’s an apt description nonetheless. While they got the loud and aggressive aspect of hardcore down to a tee, they failed to really make it engaging. Hardcore is supposed to grip you with its passion and pummel you with its intensity, an this band has only figured out the latter half of that formula.

The not-so-fittingly titled “Passion Just Like Mine” trudges out of the gate with some heavy, repetitive riffing and just does not improve from there. They don’t do much to deviate from that rhythm set forth in the opening seconds and the sound as a whole suffers because of it. At four minutes long, the song runs out of steam and substance far before the final chords are playing. It’s a recurring theme both with individual tracks and the EP as a whole. A sound should not go stale in 10 minutes' time, but somehow Wait in Vain make it leave before half that is over.

Clocking in at just under a minute and a half, “Q And” still feels too long for this band's songwriting ability. There’s some solid gang vocals towards the end that do a bit to freshen things up, but it’s way too little, way too late.

Any way around it, there’s no enough excitement and there’s not enough variety to keep these songs interesting for even the 10 minutes they’re on for. I don’t quite understand how that’s possible, but that’s the situation I’ve found this band to be in.

[Ed.'s note: This band is ex-Trial and ex-Champion, just so you know.]