Review Summary: A powerful rush of heavy guitar riffs and catchy vocal melodies, but also a narrative of the self-aware member of generation x. Glocca Morra pull off their most consistent and enjoyable album to date leaving us wanting more.
All of us remember being required to read the classic novel Of Mice and Men in school. To me, the most interesting character from the book was Lenny. Lenny is most notably recognized as a man who underestimates his own strength, which eventually leads to his downfall. This archetype can be nearly directly drawn from Glocca Morra's Ghoul Intentions EP.
The EP starts off with the song "Professional Confessional" which basically acts as a blueprint for the rest of the album. It contains everything that is to be loved about Ghoul Intentions. It has the heavy guitar tones and distorted vocals, balanced perfectly with catchy guitar hooks. The lyrics range everywhere from comedic to honest to nearly disgusting. "Little Man" carries the same style of heavy guitar riffs and vocal distortion nearly turning into screams. Vocalist Zack Schwartz (also singer for the band Stable Boys) embarrassingly confesses "I like hanging with the dealers, for me there's nothing realer." Then comes the track "Support My Head" which might be one of my favorite tracks from the album. It contains some of the catchiest guitar melodies and one of the most fun choruses to sing along with. Without a single breath of rest, a couple tracks later comes last song titled ""Them"" (is there a limit to how many quotation marks i can use?). This track marks a point in the album where it's not about having fun, but whether or not the fun is even worth it. Zack sings lines like "poster boy for start drinking again, or to stay dry" or "i can't explain myself to myself." And then after two minutes and thirty-six seconds (the longest on the entire release) of rightfully placed scolding, the song ends with no warning.
Ghoul Intentions EP balances a perfect amount of what's fun and what's real. It leaves you wanting more, but at the same time is almost nauseous from it's immediacy. It buys you a beer, then sees you're sneaking peeks at its girl, and punches you in the nuts. Even though it has such thick density and heaviness, it has so much replay power which not all albums can pull off. You don't need to devote much time to it, but it's boldness confuses you on whether you can easily enjoy it, or if its an intense exercise. Therein lies its genius. To put it in broader terms, Ghoul Intentions EP is like a drunk person. At first, they're fun. Then throughout the night they can become belligerent, disgusting, and brutally honest. But whenever you get a phone call from someone who's had a couple drinks, there's an unmistakable hint of something deep down that Ghoul Intentions EP shares, and that is sincerity.
