Review Summary: While by no means are City of Ifa the first band to play post-hardcore in this fashion, nor are they the best at it, they are definitely a breath of fresh air in this over-saturated genre.
It's a given that we have become familiar with the guitar tomfoolery filled approach to this highly encompassing genre known as post-hardcore due to
The Fall of Troy and
A Lot Like Birds. If you are familiar with City of Ifa's previous effort,
Black Pyramid, then you are also familiar with their more grindcore-influenced approach to playing it. With their latest release, City of Ifa have decided to tone down their chaos, even if it's only in small amounts here and there, which makes for a much more enjoyable listen.
So in what ways have City of Ifa become a more calm and collective band? Well for starters, there is a noticeably larger amount of clean vocals and heavier emphasis on atmosphere rather than intensity. The first track "Come In Planet Earth" shows the band making an attempt at building up to the actual meat of the album, which they do accomplish. The only problem with this track is that it is at least a minute too long. So what about these clean vocals? The third and fifth tracks, "God Made Me Broken" and "Hologram Wasteland" are where you will find most of them. With both tracks having calm clean vocal intros for roughly a minute, they show that City of Ifa are thinking less about how technical they can play and that they are attempting to embrace warmer and more accessible atmospheres with their music.
One thing that is obvious about
Sketchy Youth is that City of Ifa are making steps forward in their abilities as songwriters, but they also do their best to keep fans of
Black Pyramid from shunning them. For the most-part of the album, City of Ifa are playing what you are accustomed to hearing from them. "Dove Love" shows what the majority of
Sketchy Youth is about, fast-tempo passages which display the drummer and guitarist battling for the spotlight.
Sketchy Youth is a noticeable improvement on the style presented with
Black Pyramid. While City of Ifa may not be winning very many new fans with their latest release, they are showing signs that with more work at the new ideas tested in
Sketchy Youth, they could possibly write an album in the future that is worthy of much merit and praise.
