Review Summary: If you're looking for something suitably depressing, but body-rockingly intense, this is your jam.
Think about all of the emo bands in existence that all want to sound like Neil Perry and Orchid and what not, and just fail. Think about all the bands that try to mix more melodic Euro-styled emo with post rock and just fail. Now imagine if someone took that classic, "emo violence," sound and texture and successfully mixed it with a post-rock sound, without sounding like an Envy or Anomie clone with long-winded Explosions In The Sky-esque interludes. Yep, that's what we've got on our hands here.
This has been in my last.fm recommendations for pretty much as long as I've had a last.fm, and I just never picked it up. Maybe it's because so much of what I used to listen to sucked that I didn't want anymore that sounds like that, who knows, but I'm glad I finally checked these guys out. When you throw on the record, you're assaulted with Neil Perry worship to the point that you think it actually is Neil Perry if you're not paying attention, dissonant harmonized riffs, chugging, almost melodic breakdowns, melodic breaks, raspy vocals, these Krauts have it all down. Then they build it into something so much more than you were expecting. The instrumental segments of this album are beautiful, in that entrancing and moody fashion that the modern emo scene seems to have lost.
The main issue with this EP is that it's nothing new. It doesn't stray too far past that common complaint that most screamo sounds the same. It does sound the same, but it still stands out, I assure you. So if you're a fan of wistful melodic Euro acts like Mihai Edrisch and Suis La Lune, and a fan of more intense and dissonant classic American acts, this is for you. Honest to God, this would be a 5/5 if Orchid and Neil Perry didn't already exist.
