I’ve heard a fair bit about the Amity boys from friends up in Brisbane, mostly about their live shows and not so much their recorded work. Anyway I was definitely looking forward to getting my hands on this EP to review.
On opening the cd case I was greeted with a familiar smell, smelt a lot like opening a pack of those basketball cards from when I was a kid, I’m guessing its the printing process used on the cd covers but I’m ok with it as its bringing back good memories of simpler times at school.. Anyway, on to the music.
The opening track ‘I Heart Throbsy’ is probably the catchiest on the ep and definitely my favourite. The guitars and bass sound quite a lot fuller than on some other things I’ve heard from the Amity boys, and the addition of keys and effects seem to fill the song in around the plentiful, but not too frequent, breakdowns.
‘RIP Steggy’ starts off with the cliche’ hardcore ‘movie sample’ which is a little disappointing I must admit, it’s old and been done so many times before. The rest of the song is quite catchy, definitely heavier than the previous track but without being too heavy and out of place on the ep.
‘Straight Up’ is the third track, by now the release is starting to grow on me. I can see this track working well live with plenty of opportunity for crowd involvement in the various chorused chants throughout the song. Lots of interplay between the singer and screamer in this, backed up well by the keys and guitars.
The opening verses of the fourth track ‘Dong Wayne’ seem to have gone missing, way too drowned out by the guitars and drums, so much so that it was almost half way through the track before I could clearly hear what was going on. Not sure if this is intentional, but it’s definitely disappointing as there seems to be a great hook to the vocals.
‘I’ve heard a fair bit about the Amity boys from friends up in Brisbane, mostly about their live shows and not so much their recorded work. Anyway I was definitely looking forward to getting my hands on this EP to review.’ again seems to suffer from too much guitar and drums drowning out the vocals, but not as much as the previous track and it seems vocally a lot simpler than the rest of the EP.
The whole EP is full of big guitars, big drumming, and breakdowns aplenty, very ‘Underoath’esque, and it’s no surprise to learn that they’re supporting Underoath on their upcoming Australian tour.
If you’re a fan of Australian screamo / hardcore then this release from Amity Affliction will sit alongside anything from other acts such as Behind Crimson Eyes, and while it starts out on a really high note it seems to only go backward from there. The Amity boys definitely have the potential to continue to build on their already large following, I just hope we see a more complete album from them in the future.
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