Something For Metalheads and Soft
Rockers Alike
At first blush, Since October is your average Linkin
Park-esque, modern rock outfit with a knack for rap vocals and giving your
parents a headache. The band’s album,
This
is My Heart, boasts rhymes so
loud and riffs so fierce they’d make P.O.D. proud. (Coincidentally, Since
October’s release was produced by Travis Wyrick, who has produced much of
P.O.D.’s work.)
“My Heart,” the record’s opening track, sets a tone of some
of the hardest stuff you’ll ever hear from a group of 20-something small-town
Christians with tattoos and/or dreadlocks. “Beautiful” and “Disaster” continue
in that vein, with semi-repetitive but satisfying lyrical themes, like finding
beauty in the imperfect and God’s unending grace. There are breaks in that
enjoyable hard-rocking monotony, though, as in “In This Moment” and “Waiting.”
If you appreciate Linkin Park, P.O.D. and their
contemporaries, then this is a band you ought to check out. But you’ll want to
leave the softer tracks for listeners with more sensitive ears. Here, Since
October is far from the rap-rocking norm. These songs are lush, melodic and
downright pretty—a style even the most talented rap-tinged alt-rock bands have
trouble conquering. But Since October has done so, and in this, listeners learn
that the band is at its best when the members rest their vocal cords and calm
down.
–Christy Gordon