This Town, A Forest - Emerge EP (04/6/2011)
Melbourne based post-hardcore band This Town, A Forest have been steadily building a name for themselves over the past few years, with a solid live show and good songs. With the release of their EP Emerge and a heap of upcoming shows, TTAF are going to earn a lot more fans in the near future.
This Town, A Forest play a familiar brand of post-hardcore, with an intricate, melodic sound that is counteracted by breakdowns. In my opinion, a band like this would sound much better if they dropped the trendy breakdown and just kept developing in the melodic direction that the rest of their music follows, but even with breakdowns in tow they still do that sound better than most other bands playing this style. The synth parts are another addition that I don’t think is entirely needed, as it doesn’t really add any depth to the band’s sound, but rather just sounds like a last minute add-on. TTAF sound like The Dream The Chase, with the addition of some excellent Receiving End Of Sirens type lead guitar added in, which really helps the band stand out from the crowd. Actually, there’s quite a large TREOS influence in this album, especially on the track Vitrified Skies.
At 23 minutes, the EP isn’t short, but it’s not a boring listen. With many bands of this sound, songs tend to merge together and sound like one long song after an extended listen, such as on House Vs Hurricane’s debut album, but Emerge is comprised of 7 distinct tracks, each with their own feel. The tracks all have a high energy, and the screaming put to great use, not overused, but sounding especially good when it’s done at the same time as the clean vocals.
The second track on the album, Frequencies, is a re-recorded version of one of the band’s older songs, and you can tell the difference that good production makes. The vocals and guitar lines are so much cleaner and just sound much better overall. The production values on the EP are actually exceptional, and it will be interesting to see how well their live sound replicates their recorded one.
The guitar work of Michael D'Angelo and Ben Corbett works incredibly well on this album, with some great riffs and some awesome lead work throughout. The guitar work is impressive for most of the EP, only occasionally dropping into repetitive open chord chugging, but the rest of their playing really makes up for those moments I think. Daniel Aquilina and Hudson Ryan round out the rhythm section, on bass and drums respectively, and sound solid throughout. Like most bands of this genre though, the bass is pretty much lost in the mix unless you’re wearing good headphones or have an awesome stereo system.
The vocals are easily the highlight on this album. Vocalist Tim D'Agostino has a killer range, and it is put to great use over the seven tracks of this EP. He reminds me of Charles Furney from Canadian band Secret & Whisper, and it’ll be worth checking them out, especially if Tim can nail some of the higher notes live.
Following the release of Emerge, TTAF will be launching the EP at Ding Dong Lounge on the 24th of June with Built On Secrets, so make sure you head down and support local music. They will go onto bigger and better things once they build up more of a following and establish a name for themselves in the local scene.
Josh Mitrou
This Town, A Forest play a familiar brand of post-hardcore, with an intricate, melodic sound that is counteracted by breakdowns. In my opinion, a band like this would sound much better if they dropped the trendy breakdown and just kept developing in the melodic direction that the rest of their music follows, but even with breakdowns in tow they still do that sound better than most other bands playing this style. The synth parts are another addition that I don’t think is entirely needed, as it doesn’t really add any depth to the band’s sound, but rather just sounds like a last minute add-on. TTAF sound like The Dream The Chase, with the addition of some excellent Receiving End Of Sirens type lead guitar added in, which really helps the band stand out from the crowd. Actually, there’s quite a large TREOS influence in this album, especially on the track Vitrified Skies.
At 23 minutes, the EP isn’t short, but it’s not a boring listen. With many bands of this sound, songs tend to merge together and sound like one long song after an extended listen, such as on House Vs Hurricane’s debut album, but Emerge is comprised of 7 distinct tracks, each with their own feel. The tracks all have a high energy, and the screaming put to great use, not overused, but sounding especially good when it’s done at the same time as the clean vocals.
The second track on the album, Frequencies, is a re-recorded version of one of the band’s older songs, and you can tell the difference that good production makes. The vocals and guitar lines are so much cleaner and just sound much better overall. The production values on the EP are actually exceptional, and it will be interesting to see how well their live sound replicates their recorded one.
The guitar work of Michael D'Angelo and Ben Corbett works incredibly well on this album, with some great riffs and some awesome lead work throughout. The guitar work is impressive for most of the EP, only occasionally dropping into repetitive open chord chugging, but the rest of their playing really makes up for those moments I think. Daniel Aquilina and Hudson Ryan round out the rhythm section, on bass and drums respectively, and sound solid throughout. Like most bands of this genre though, the bass is pretty much lost in the mix unless you’re wearing good headphones or have an awesome stereo system.
The vocals are easily the highlight on this album. Vocalist Tim D'Agostino has a killer range, and it is put to great use over the seven tracks of this EP. He reminds me of Charles Furney from Canadian band Secret & Whisper, and it’ll be worth checking them out, especially if Tim can nail some of the higher notes live.
Following the release of Emerge, TTAF will be launching the EP at Ding Dong Lounge on the 24th of June with Built On Secrets, so make sure you head down and support local music. They will go onto bigger and better things once they build up more of a following and establish a name for themselves in the local scene.
Josh Mitrou