Review Summary: Overall, Abandon All Ships! are just another band that enjoy doing what they do; make music and experiment but they are simply just another band. Don't get me wrong their music is enjoyable but that's not enough to get far in the REAL music industry
Where do I honestly start? Oh I know…
Abandon All Ships! are a Canadian Post-Hardcore/Hardcore/Trancecore six piece band and they hit the scene in 2006 and realeased their debut EP in 2009, and in 2010 they signed to Rise Records, Insert *Fanboy and Fangirl yelp* here.
Theres five songs on the EP so I'll do a brief track by track review, so here it goes:
1. Pedestrians Is Another Word For Speedbumb:
The synths/techno beat comes in loud and clear letting the listener know what this band are all about. The electronic breakdowns and the pace of the song is generally good; it's a good opener. Personally I'm not keen on the screamed vocals (done by Angelo Aiti ) and the clean vocals are autotuned, seems all too familiar? I'll let you make your descion on that.
2. Shake Your AAS:
The start of the track is supposed to be humourous, I didn't appreciate it the first time so hearing it over and over again does grate abit. Anyway it's just like the track before when it comes down to substance; good use of tech', nice use of synths and guitar and it has an upbeat vibe. However what makes this track for me is around the 2:19 mark, the breakdown is pure electronic and too put it simple it's really, really cool.
3. Megawacko:
With the hardcore genre comes stupid titles and this is one of them, having silly titles doesn't make your band any different or COOL for that matter. The song starts off pretty well and then goes downhill due to the lyrics, lyrically this song is pretty poor and so is the EP as a whole but it can be forgiven for the awesome breakdowns and trance beats.
4. Brendon's Song:
It starts off like your normal post-hardcore song; pretty bland then around the 2 minute mark it makes an impression but I can't help but feel it's too late. Normally if a song doesn't capture my attention within the 1st minute it normally gets skipped but in saying that this song has a decent ending, the synth is used perfectly.
5. In Your Dreams Brah!:
Just like the song before it, it starts off like your typical hardcore song with the guitar and drums chugging away then the synths come in and spices it up a little. They gradually fade into the background as the guitar and drums take centre stage along with the vocals. Once again, around the 2 minute mark the trance comes in and for me saves the song. If it's one thing about this EP its that the trance/synth/beats have been timed just right and sound good too.
I can't help but think this genre 'ship' should have been abandoned long ago...
