Review Summary: If you like hard rock, like Drowning Pool or Breaking Benjamin, many of the mainstream bands, you will like this. It is a great CD and should be owned by fans of the genre, if you don't like rock, then you should probably check something else out.
Earshot is a five piece band from Los Angeles, California, formed in 1999. They show very close similarities to bands such as Tool and Disturbed, but do a pretty good job at doing so.
These guys have released another CD, entitled Letting Go, it has had some success with songs like "Get Away" and "Headstrong", not to be confused with the song from the band Trapt. Both versions are good, and they are two completely different songs. The song "Headstrong" that these guys did, got put on the Queen of the Damned Soundtrack. Earshot has room to improve, as there are not many solos. This CD is a great CD for your collection.
Earshot is:
Will Martin - Guitar, Vocals
Mike Callahan - Guitar
Scott Kohler - Guitar
Johnny Sprague - Bass
Chas Stumbo – Drums
After releasing Letting go in 2002, these guys started to work on their best album yet, entitled Two. Two was released in 2004 and features two solid songs, Wait and Someone. While these two songs were released to the radio, it is really the other songs that shine on this solid CD. With Will highly sounding like Maynard James Keenan, it would be hard to tell Tool from Earshot, but since Earshot hasn’t done any build ups, and doesn’t play a lot of solos, and the bass work for Tool (Justin Chancellor) is much better, it is pretty easy to distinguish the two apart. Tool is the better band, but these guys should deserve some respect for what they have done. They do have a long way to go, though.
Now on to the songs.
"Wait" is the song that opens up the album with a bang. It is simply put as a straight up hard rock song that is very good. Although it tends to be repetitive near the end of the song, it somehow just stays unique, and that is what the lead single should do to you. There is a uniqueness about this song that gets to me. I don’t know how to describe it, but every time I feel it is a different song.
"Tongue-Tied" is one of my favorite songs from the CD, and it starts out with a very high and catchy riff. This is more of a melodic song, but the meaning is very good, saying that he just has to hold on to the relationships that he has made with a girl, or other people for that matter. Either way, you get what he is trying to say. It is a short song, but there is a solo near the end of the song that finishes the song. It is very simple, but very melodic to hear as well. If it weren’t for the solo, it would be a very boring song.
"Fall Apart" is your nu-metal song on this album, as the guitar parts are very simple. Will does a pretty good job on singing in this song, and the soft guitar lines are very simple, but make the song audible. The bridge is sung, too making for more of a vocal song with no instrumental solos of any kind. The drums are the only instrument that shines on this song.
"Someone" is the second single off of the CD, and it is just like the last, pretty boring and generic. Good vocals, as all songs with boring instrumentals have. That is one thing that drives me crazy. Why do all of the great vocals get stuck with bands that tend not to use their talent? But back to the song. This is a straight up mainstream song. It is nowhere as good as Wait. The vocals get really good at the end as Will shows how long he can hold notes. Not brilliant, but not bad either.
"Rotten Inside" is your song that sounds like Smile Empty Soul. With some eerie effects to lead the guitar into play, it uses those well. The guitar is used well between the verses and choruses, adding some attractive melodies and some ear candy. The song starts to repeat near the end, though, and that is the only downside of this song. Still a great song nonetheless.
"Down" is a song that starts off really fast, and it grabs the dual guitar setting and puts it to good use, as there is a noticeable difference between the lead and rhythm. This song, instrumentally, sounds like something that Disturbed wrote, but it shows its independence from everything and lets you look at it if you knew who wrote the song. The bridge on this song is more instrumentally aimed, as they use some cool harmonics. The Tool influences kick in at the bridge as well.
"Nice To Feel the Sun" is a song where the Tool Influences really shine, and they show the good side of it, as noted in the somewhat long intro with the solar flying guitar line. This is another one of my favorite songs off of the CD, and although it shows Tool influences, this song could have been a lot longer, but these guys did nothing with that. You could call this a great, yet short song. It is pretty long for a hard rock group, clocking in at 3:55, and the bridge is a lot more instrumental this time. Definitely one of the better songs on the CD.
"Again starts" off very quiet, but leads us into the opening riff. This song gets pretty catchy at times. The musicianship on this song is pretty good, and the Tool influences show here as well. The lyrics are sung decently, and not too forced. That is a bright spot. It reminds me of Evans Blue on this, and it shows the better part of it.
"Goodbye" starts out with a clean guitar riff that leaves you wondering where the song is going to go. The bass adds a nice effect as well. You can see some Breaking Benjamin similarities in this song. The singing is very well sung, and adds to the feeling of the song. This song is kinda short, but gets repetitive after a while. It is good, but gets old really quick, until the bride. The bridge changes things up a bit until it goes back to the same old lyrics. A decent song.
"Should've Been There" is the ballad of the album, and the guitar uses some delay effects, but the vocals seem somewhat forced, and it kind of hurts this song, but it is still a great song to listen to. The chorus is the hook of the song, and you will notice it right as the chorus comes into play. It does this over and over again, with different verses. It is mainly a lyric song to listen to, but still good.
"Control" is another fast paced song, and the guitar riff will get stuck in your head. The bass is prominent in this great hard rock song, and it is a great way to close the album off. The whole band gets in the act as you can hear the background vocals, this is a near flawless song, considering that there are no solos. There is even an acoustic guitar in the bridge. A great song and great way to end the CD.
Recommended songs
Wait
Tongue-Tied
Rotten Inside
Nice To Feel the Sun
Control
I hope you like the review, and this is a 3.5/5. A great CD.
