The Minor Times have the distinction of being the first band on Prosthetic Records I've ever been fully interested in, with their proper label debut coming in the form of Summer of Wolves, a 41-minute slab of Botch-y goodness. They've got those angular riffs, strainingly growled vocals, distorted bass, pounding stop-start guitars and medium pace they roll wi--okay, so yeah, the Minor Times sound a lot like Botch.

And we all know they're not alone. The post-We Are the Romans clones have come in droves. Some bad, others impressive, and a slew of decent (somewhat) imitators. The Minor Times fall clearly into the third camp, but they also draw from the heaviest moments of epic metal's upper classmen (Isis, Buried Inside). This prevents Summer of Wolves from processions that would otherwise be rather generic, instead offering an interesting hybrid of ideas into a palatable array of digestible metalcore.

Tracks like "Van Zant" and "This Is the Blues" benefit from the employment of the occasional clean guitar riff, repeatedly picked to establish a rhythmic atmosphere. In the latter, it weaves in and out of the song, letting it become overpowered by the harrowing vocals and heavier chords. "Bring in the Suit" is a nine-minute epic with weird, nearly choral "na na"s over lighter fare making up a hefty portion of it.

A little lengthy, and a little derivative, the Minor Times' Summer of Wolves is just powerful and enjoyable enough to overcome these faults.

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Summer of Wolves