Fox Trotsky are a band with a serious identity crisis. On one hand, the comparison could be drawn that they are a less talented, less experienced version of the Suicide Machines. On the other hand, it could just be said that the band tries to implement far more variety and creativity than they really have the talent for. The truth of the matter lies pretty firmly in the middle.
They're ambitious, first and foremost, that's what's really noticeable. Combining aspects of punk, ska, and hardcore just as the Suicide Machines perfected, Trotsky emerge as a young group of guys that are really trying to throw together those styles in the best manner they know how. Sometimes, it works. "Corpse Rock" has some surprisingly vibrant ska upstrokes, and some decent punk rock to anchor it down. Where they run into trouble is with some of the screaming.
The band's vocalist has an extremely quick firing, raspy scream that's loud, but not usually much else. He doesn't always scream in tune, or even in cohesion with the rest of this band, leaving a forced result showing a band trying to be jack of all trades. If some more hardcore-esque riffs were put behind him, and he was given ample chance to flesh out the scream, it might actually sound pretty solid, but the band chooses instead to sporadically display those kind of vocals, and it comes off sounding too powerful for the music that's backing it. If they would instead stick to their mixture of punk and ska, like "Withdrawl," they'd have a pretty solid product on their hands. That's something they're actually rather solid with. The vocals aren't superb, and the musicianship not incredible, but it's definitely good enough to get the job done and create some solid tunes. "Politricks" is a faster punk song with some brief ska bridges that makes light of their talent when turning up the volume and speeding up the pace a bit. They're able to craft the entire song well, to the point where you really wonder why they even bother trying anything else.
Possibly not even so much an identity crisis as some poor decision making, Fox Trotsky would do well to stick to their punk and ska roots, leaving the hardcore for those bands who know how to play it.