Well, another release from Espo, another pretty darn cool CD layout,
another disappointing band. As I read TWIMF's promo sheet, they came off
sounding pretty hardcore. Taking their name from a Rites of Spring lyric,
being from Boston, and their Quicksand "Manic Compression"-era artwork
deemed them pretty hardcore to me. Then I looked farther down the promo
sheet. Under "Bands played with" there's the "scene" stalwarts such as Hot
Water Music, Piebald, etc. But as one looks closer, one sees: Jerry
Cantrell (from Alice In Chains) and Jimmie's Chicken Shack?!? Now, don't
get me wrong, I actually like JCS's first major label album, and some Alice
In Chains stuff is decent, but no band will EVER earn any punk credibility
by playing with the aforementioned bands. So now, without even listening
to the band, I've had my hopes brought up and dashed, in less than 5
minutes. Then I find one more hope: maybe they're an emo band! It says in
the promo sheet that their drummer used to play for Get High and Piebald!
Yay! Wait, it then says that the aforementioned drummer QUIT before the
album was made, so once again, I have nothing to go by. I guess there's
nothing left to do but to put the CD in...
[45 minutes later]
Well, that's that. Imagine if Creed or Collective Soul (or any other
post-grunge band) took a huge liking to the music of Quicksand or Seaweed
(or any other post-hardcore band). This is what you get. Pretty decent
music, for the majority of the CD (with one song actually sounding like an
old Urge Overkill song, but then I realized they were just covering Husker
Du), but the vocals just ruin the whole thing. It really does sound like
the guy from Creed or Collective Soul, no joke. And the lyrics were a
letdown, too. Lines like "Cross my heart, hope to die/Can I get a ride?"
and "All my friends/Are my enemies (Wonderful)" just bored me endlessly.
I've heard it all before, and it was generally better written and sung.
So, in closing, a note to Espo: SIGN SOME GOOD BANDS SO ALL YOUR COOL
PACKAGING IDEAS AND ARTWORK DON'T GO TO WASTE! Thank you, and goodnight.
[taken from A different kind of greatness webzine]