Description
Haste’s music is not quite what you’d expect based on their label, underground metal giant Century Media, who have seemingly chosen the band as a way to test the (potentially lucrative) emo-metal waters. The first song on The Mercury Lift, “With All the Pride and Dignity of a Drowning Swimmer,” kicks off with a body-slamming guitar riff, double-bass drums, and some patented screamo vocals, but come chorus time, they shift gears into a melodic emo-punk chorus that would sound perfectly at home on Top 40 radio. The rest of the album carries on in much the same way, alternating between heavy, aggressive hardcore-metal and saccharine, radio-primed emo-pop. This is actually the same sort of formula they followed on most of their first album, When Reason Sleeps, and to be fair, the idea of using a “clean” vocalist alongside a more typical-for-the-genre screamer is one with a lot of potential. And for listeners who appreciate the Get Up Kids and Converge (or Glassjaw and Earth Crisis) with equal enthusiasm, Haste’s dual-vocal style may well hit the spot. However, from an underground metal/hardcore listener’s perspective, the singing is hard to take, coming across as cloying, calculated, and forcefully melodramatic rather than sincerely emotional. Which is a shame, because everything else about this album is well done, from the full-sounding production to the tight, energetic performances the rest of the band puts on. There’s even a nice growling guest spot from Lamb Of God vocalist Randy Blythe on one track, “A God Reclaims His Throne.” Perhaps it’s simply a matter of taste, but Haste’s emo-metal-hardcore blend may be too diverse for it’s own good. Either that or it’s being pitched to the wrong audience.
Track list:
1. With All The Pride And Dignity Of A Drowning Swimmer
2. Evidence Of Wasted Link
3. The Rescued
4. Houdini Has Lost His Keys
5. The Death Of Stars Like The Sun
6. Room One Thirty Four
7. Aspartame
8. A God Reclaims His Throne
9. Stutter
10. Force Is Always An Option
11. Revenge Tastes Like Blood And Broken Teeth