A friend of mine recommended this band to me a while back. He insisted that I download the song "I Do My Crosswords In Pen", he thought I'd be impressed. I was impressed at the time, but I suppose this band just got lost in the shuffle and they slipped from my mind for a while. When I noticed that they had signed to Eulogy I was somewhat looking forward to their upcoming album.

On Broken Wings have a sound that is somewhat reminiscent of bands like Eighteen Visions and Every Time I Die. They have huge breakdowns, intricate riffs, and growling, distorted vocals. But what sets them apart from the pack is their use of keys and electronics. This isn't "The Shape of Punk To Come" or anything even in that ballpark, but it's still a nice change of pace. At least this band is not nearly as nearly as predictable as many of the other new bands in the metalcore genre. One of the things I noticed right away was the vocals. They are heavily distorted, to the point where they sometimes sound almost like another instrument.

Musically, their sound is built upon frantic scaling, which is where the ETID influence comes in and crushing breakdowns. The electronics and samples add a new dimension to these songs, in some cases you wouldn't notice them right away, but if they were gone the songs wouldn't work. This band is getting some attention, first for their live show and now for this CD. I wouldn't be all that surprised to see them becoming the new hype band in a few a months. However, their sound still needs some work. The last few tracks run together too much for liking and the electronics could be a little more prevalent. With that said, this is still a good release and good introduction for this band.

In a genre that is fairly stagnant, On Broken Wings is like a breath of fresh air, but they still need to refine their sound a bit. But there's plenty of time for that, and until then I'll be pleased with this release.

Listless MP3