December

The Dillinger Escape Plan have made things real hard for the whole "metalcore" genre. Discs like this one from December would have impressed the heck out of me a year ago, but now it seems pretty uneventful after repeated Dillinger listens. It rocks hard enough, with weird riffs swirling around, angry screamed vocals, hectic tempos and generally aggro (but not sounding macho, which is nice). This sub-genre of our favourite genre has become overpopulated fast, and while December are by no means bad, they aren't rising to the top of the pile, which is a shame because they do pull off some impressive moves on this CD. Totally unreadable layout, furthering the inability to mould an identity out of the damn thing. Verdict = forgettable, but shouldn't be. Ya, I'm confused too.