Posted on: November 13, 2008 Posted by: John B. Moore Comments: 0

It’s hard to hear the songs off of Asteria’s self-titled EP over the sound of the final nails being loudly banged into the emo/pop-punk coffin. The paint-by-numbers, overproduced, polished-all-the-jagged- edges-until-they’re-shiny-and-smooth sound from this Indiana-based five piece is so mundane that the only thing to distinguish one song from the next is the titles.

Emo has gotten a bad rap of lately. Yes, it’s a bit whiny at times (though kind of expected given that emo is short for emotional) and can lean toward the dramatic too often, but there have been some creative bands to pop out of the genre over the past decade. Bands like Thrice and Jimmy Eat World wrote some incredible songs and even My Chemical Romance, for all their goofy costumes and eyeliner, managed to record some very catchy songs – tunes that would have made Freddy Mercury proud.

Asteria, and all the other bands running each other over to jump on the bandwagon before it runs out of gas, simply sound like really bad carbon copies of every other band who came before them. I’m not saying Asteria is the worst offender, but they are just one of many, many groups who think pop-punk means little more than wearing day-glo hoodies and asymmetrical haircuts. Do yourself a favor and skip this EP. Pick up a copy of Jimmy Eats World’s “Clarity.” It’s 10 years old, but still serves as a reminder of the high points of emo/pop-punk.

Top Tracks: None that I could find.

Rating: 3/10

Asteria – Asteria EP (CD) / 2008 Self-released / 8 tracks

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