Review Summary: Spoken word/breakdowns/beauty...also known as Old Men Die In New Suits
Oftentimes a band comes along saying they have a "unique" sound, they try and separate themselves from certain scenes and hope to somehow make some sort of progress musically. Most of these bands fail at what they set out to do, whether it be the allure of being signed to a big label or from a simple lack of action to meet ambition. Every so often though, a band makes genuine progress, they find something that clicks, that one factor that was missing in their music before and it opens up a world of possibilities for them. Brand New did this with The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me, As Cities Burn with Come Now Sleep, Thrice with The Illusion of Safety, so on and so forth, and now Old Men Die In New Suits has that same ambitious dream. Have they succeeded in their goals? Have they failed miserably? Or are they in some in between section of this road carrying on?
Musically OMDINS can draw comparisons from La Dispute to Holding Onto Hope, they have a nice mixture of hardcore punk/metalcore/ambient that flows extremely well on Evolution. The guitar work on the album is nothing short of beautiful. Several sections of these three songs really hit home with intricate guitar lines that weave in and out of each other creating a seamless journey from beginning to end. There are no chug marathons here, each breakdown presented is refreshing and fits very nicely in with the overall build and release of the EP.
A big thing to point out about this band is the bass. While most bands are content with their bassist taking a back seat and simply playing the same lines as the guitarists OMDINS actually utilizes bassist Shane Baker as evident in the song Though We Fade, both clean parts in the song feature very skillful bass lines that really fill out the sound. The only complaint one might have is the use of electronic drums in the recordings, though what is played is good it just doesn't fit when the band's main goal is to make organic, emotional music.
If you like either La Dispute or mewithoutYou you'll feel very much at home with the spoken word vocals presented by Cody Alexander. The emotion is evident in his voice and lyrics and serves to really keep the song moving whether it be talking over layered clean and delayed guitar parts or passionate yelling fits leading up to the release of a breakdown. The screaming on the album is a little more touchy however. Personally I know a lot of people who dig the whole spoken word scene but can't stand anything with screaming and vice-versa but OMDINS takes both ends of the spectrum and mixes them up to present a very unique sound. Just like with the spoken word, the passion is noticeable in the screams at every part. Lows, mids, highs, it's all thrown in here and each one is of very decent quality, like I stated before it's very touchy so the listener will either love or hate it.
A three song teaser EP is a hard thing to listen to and draw a definitive answer from but Old Men Die In New Suits does a fine job of presenting us with a taste of what they are working on. The blending of styles works out in their favor as nothing seems forced or out of place. Each member is very in tune with each other and the writing of the songs on Evolution shows that everyone here is very talented with their respective instrument. As of now it seems that OMDINS is still on that path to carving out a name for themselves and I hope to see a continuance of their experimentation on the second part of the EP coming out sometime late winter called Revolution.
Members:
Cody Alexander- spoken word
Ian Graff- screams
Matthew Ziegelbauer- guitar
P.J. Ray - guitar
Shane Baker - bass
Ruben Martinez - drums
