4 Hanged Little Toys grabbed my attention; it is quite a morbid innocence-stealing name for an EP. Design are from Italy, as are Lacuna Coil - but that is as far as the similarity goes. Trawling their Myspace page I find the usual biography; they formed in 2006, in March of 2009 they started recording this EP, and in April of 2010, they won 2° edition of the Paradise of Rock contest.
Unfortunately, that is as good as it gets. Musically this is average at best, mimicking bands like Deftones but in a more depressing manner in that the guitar is heavy and gives off a false impression that the vocals will match the intensity of the music. It’s well-produced and it sounds professional, unfortunately the vocals and lyrics let it down – the lyrics are as emo as they come, yet the flat, tuneless vocals are sung with hardly any emotion invested.
It’s not that I don’t like the CD, it just doesn’t grab my attention the way the name of it did. If they had made it slightly more ‘rock’ than advertised and less depressing lyrically, perhaps this would have been better but this lacks any passion or fire in the belly. If you like the thought of Deftones crossed with Bullet for my Valentine this band may be for you, but I don’t rate it too highly.
http://www.myspace.com/designrockband
