Artist: Abandon All Ships!
Album: Abandon All Ships! EP

There was a time, not too long ago, when a small band named A Day to Remember from Ocala, Florida kept our mouths open from their insanely good blend of pop/punk/hardcore. We are now headed in a slightly different direction with the same intent but a different vibe. Canadian sextet Abandon All Ships! add uniquely catchy melodies tangled with intense screaming and an electro-dance flavor. Picture the brutality of older-style Atreyu screaming (The Curse) pumped up with dance feel and slow, but heavy, breakdowns of Attack Attack! (Someday Came Suddenly).

Up first we begin with “Pedestrians Is Another Word for Speedbump” which introduces the listener to AAS’s sound. High-soaring choruses add the flair of the dance-beat preface gaining style points with the girls while the breakdowns bring the rage for the mosh-aficionado. The next track “Shake Your AAS” starts of with the vocalist using the vocoder while he sings intertwining shredding guitar parts in between the verses which give the song “old video game feel”. I just wanted to point out that I don’t mind the whole vocoder thing in moderation but it has been overused as of late. That’s my 2 cents on that subject.

“Megawacko”, the third track, is probably my favorite out of the 5 songs presented just because of huge build up at the beginning. The vicious breakdown at the end when Ange comes in and screams literally wanted to make me throw down with a random person at the mall when I first listened to it. Too intense haha. “Brendon’s Song” and “In Your Dreams Brah!” deliver hard-hitting melodies that are catchy and fun as well.

On the positive side this 5 song EP packs a punch that every hardcore fan can enjoy and even if you don’t like the whole “vocoder” fad it still meshes with the music well. It is a solid mix of songs that display the band and the sound they are trying to achieve. Though still needing to break through the barrier of the US soil, when they do, AAS will make an impact on the scene.

On a side note, which I just read on their MySpace, these guys are looking for help setting up tour dates in the U.S. so any way you can help them would be very much appreciated! Thanks in advance.

http://www.myspace.com/abandonallships

score: 8/10

Written by: Grant Trimboli [www.twitter.com/utggrant]

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James Shotwell

James Shotwell is the founder of Under The Gun Review. He loves writing about music and movies almost as much as he loves his two fat cats. He's also the co-founder of Antique Records and the Marketing Coordinator for Haulix. You should probably follow him on Twitter.

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