Congratulations, you're mediocre!
In their obvious attempt at trying to craft these huge, orchestrated melodies, Anadivine fall short in their bold attempts on their self-titled EP. Although there is half-decent guitar work going on occasionally, a pretty good lyrics base, and the push towards a fairly original sound, the band can't seem to tap that potential you can hear in their focus.
Bearing a similarity to Armor for Sleep both in vocals and the overall feel of the moods and tempos, it makes for some interesting moments, but they fail to hold your attention for the entire spin of the disc. Although Claudio from Coheed & Cambria (hometown locals for Anadivine) guests some vocals on "Cross Your Heart," there was also a definite Coheed vibe I was feeling before I heard his all-too-familiar voice in the song. The combination strives towards this certain boldness that they can't seem to capture.
The Coheed vibe isn't just present in the music, but the skewed conceptualization the band tries to create by connecting certain tracks of the EP together. They do admit it with their use of the ellipses to end and/or begin track names. Strung together, the sentence formed by the names of tracks one, four, and eight say "In regard to the radio capture and the refusal to negotiate with the frequency hostage." There are some ideas that are obviously trying to be conveyed here, you think?
"Alcohol and Oxygen" tries the indecipherable screaming bit for its bridge and breakdown, but it isn't so much distasteful as it a bit awkward. There's something missing that just doesn't fully connect it to the song, leaving it slightly out-of-place. In the aforementioned "Cross Your Heart," the song immediately begins with a great hook in which the vocalist describes, "Emily's trapped under blankets, tucked in by paramedics," but it ceases to be replicated anywhere else in the tune.
As for the lyrics base, it's nice to see the band choose mostly the ideas of personal belonging and the mentally social aspects of domestic life over the normal whining and moaning about relationships. Several symbols of suicide are strewn about the art, over a strange montage of fire and blood-like colors, representing the subject matter well.
The way these lyrics are presented is the matter of the problem. There is a Hoover Dam of untapped potential this band has, and with the right ideas, the right changes, and the right attitudes, this wall can be broken down. Hopefully next summer when their debut full-length is released on the Militia Group, we should be able to say "Mazel Tov!" and mean it.
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