Review Summary: Nothing you haven't heard, but still a pretty good listen.
Loud drums and interesting, well-executed screams start off A Perpetual Resonance, the first track on Dreamer's 'To Be Heard Above The Noise' (TBHAN) EP. But wait! No fancy intro about today's post-hardcore and/or the genre's increasing staleness? No, TBHAN wastes no time with intros on their debut, and neither will I. Rather, they plunge into the hard-to-soft dynamic that we've been hearing for so long that it isn't even worthy of the title 'dynamic' anymore, simultaneously making apparent all the good and bad things about this EP.
The production is, arguably, what keeps this EP from reaching more of its potential, and it's hard to tell whether this is to be considered the production one expects from an EP or if this is what the band was actually going for. Regardless, the immediate effect is that the drums are in-your-face, the clean vocals sound stale (unless this is a clever way to cover that the fact that they actually are stale), and the bass is rendered virtually inaudible. Aside from this huge gripe, there is some enjoyment to be had here, if one has patience.
As stated above, the screams here are pretty well-done, but unfortunately cover a relatively small portion of the tracks here. This may be a good thing, though, as tracks that feature extended screamed sections start to get old a little quicker than the rest of the album. The clean vocals aren't anything you haven't heard before, but have potential if it weren't for that damned production. They are quite catchy at points (Sever The Ties) and forgettable in others (I Don't Subscribe To Mumbo Jumbo, a song where the screams really shine).
This EP honestly isn't bad at all, it just suffers from sounding generic and having little staying power- you'll probably forget about it soon after listening. The lyrics aren't bad, but nothing terribly amazing either. If you hang on, though, there is quite a bit of enjoyment to be found here, as Dreamer play some interesting tunes and set the stage for what will hopefully be a powerful and more original LP.
