Deep Enough To Die

My City Of Ruin (2004)

Greg

Deep Enough to what? Die? Oh, I bet there's lots of screaming in this.

Thirty seconds into My City of Ruin for the first time, I thought, "if this keeps up, I will have nothing to say other than they sound like Thursday." And sure enough, that's all I got. Apparently they also are "recommended if you like" The Movielife and Funeral for a Friend, but honestly I don't really know or care to know either of those bands. So what I did was see if I could picture Thursday playing each track. Okay, so there were some slight differences, like Thursday would be tighter, they would have better lead vocals (this guy tends to be a bit flat and thin) and the production would be better with Island's deep pockets (not to say this production was that bad).

The Pennsylvanian quintet tends to lean more on the heavy side of that post-whatever sound and screaming is a staple in most songs. But on the other side of the coin, there are a couple of occasions with harmonized vocals, which was a nice touch. Double-bass drumming also appears, sometime unwarranted, but it's not really overdone thankfully. The guitars are mostly distorted, with less of the Cure-type quiet parts.

As far as songs go, it's hard to pick any because although they are pretty good for what they are doing, none stick out for me as outstanding. "Fade Away Memories" is a good one that relies more on melody that screaming. Another one, "For the Sky" would be better titled "Understanding in Another Car Crash" or something, with lyrics like: "Your ivory skin lies on the concrete / Shattered glass with a broken heart / There is no stopping this car / Seatbelts off and you're heading for the sky / The wrong decisions made contribute / and we all die now with you." Serious topic aside, it just really sounded like a rip-off. Other than that, the album just goes by really quick (10 tracks in 27 minutes), and nothing else sticks. If it were really bad more points in it would stick, but it's decent and really just that. Decent.

For what they're goin for, Deep Enough To Die succeed. They are not genre-defying, cliché-avoiding superstars as their bios claim, but they do the post-hardcore thing effectively.