Artist: (Damn) This Desert Air
Title: Distance Waits
Type: EP
Label: Bastardised Records

If you’re a metal fan these days, you’re hardly lacking music in scope and breadth of imagination – recent dissolution of Isis notwithstanding. Throwing their hat into the ring are (Damn) This Desert Air, who uncomfortably straddle the accessibility of ‘Antenna’ era Cave In, and well, Cave In again. Obviously, there are other bands in there, but this is the first one that springs to mind. Sadly, they don’t quite hit the same heights as Stephen Brodsky and co, despite members being veterans of several mid double-O alt rock bands like Instruction, who were basically a couple of emos who listened to Pavement and thought the riffs were too jangly and the lyrics needed to be more about how you couldn’t get laid.

Anyway, wrenching ourselves into the present, ‘Ghost I Own’ displays a tad more imagination than the previous members’ bands would suggest. This is certainly a lot more adventurous, with some interesting post-hardcore guitar work creeping in amongst the expansive open-armed drumming, which certainly accounts for the feeling of space. Follow on track ‘Trembles’ doesn’t fare as well, since it sounds like Far, who (and I don’t care what you think) were massively over-rated in the first place; a pastiche version with trite lyrics is about the easiest way to wind up me up, second only to waking me up with Lady Gaga after a night shift. For then on, the promised epicness in the blurb isn’t delivered.

Part of this simply comes down to a lack of authority. Those of you who prefer Neurosis will have already stopped reading at this point, but vocalist Craig Cirinelli is very much from the “hold that note” school of emo-singing, which basically means keeping the final note in a verse line going longer than is comfortable, like somebody staying over at your house party and not fucking off in the morning, with ‘Before Sunrise’ most of the odious culprits, with his bland tones sadly not stretching to breaking point, as this injection of dynamism into the vocals would undoubtedly bring the tunes into sharp focus, rather than the loose sort of background music we’re getting here. It’s a sad state of affairs when the panning programmed beats and artificial strings in the remix of ‘Ghost I Own’ give it the discipline to be truly interesting.

http://www.myspace.com/damnthisdesertair