This is not the punk band that I was expected when I first put the disc into the players. Instead, what comes forth during tracks like “Get To You” is something that is much more metal influenced. There are no immediate ties to other acts, which is a good thing, but individuals will be confused with where exactly the band is going to go by the time that “Get To You” ends. The production is solid but seems to be a little off at the high end of things; the EP is a little off (fuzzy) at the highest registers. “Get To You” is a solid opening to the disc, but shows that the band has no problems continuing with the same general riff for a few minutes.
This may just be an aberration, as “On The Mend” ha a number of different guitar riffs present during the three and a half minutes of the track. The only thing that can be construed as a negative during this track is the fact that the song ends with Human Vice Patrol’s vocalist repeating the title phrase about fifteen times before the track ends. “High Tide Fist Fight” is another of the tracks that Human Vice Patrol hangs itself on; the band needs to find differing material to break up these tracks, as simply repeating a phrase time and time again is not going to cut it. The use of a multiple set of harmonies (falsetto) during the interlude of “High Tide Fist Fight” is perhaps the most interesting thing on the EP, but the band does not take much in the way of time to get back to the same ultra-repetition that the disc suffers with. The band seems to have all of their influences together (the alt-rock of the early nineties, the nu rock of acts liker Disturbed and Godsmack), but each of the five tracks on this EP has an unpolished feeling to it.
The repetition that factors so heavily during the track would be the perfect location to insert new material into; as it is, the twenty minutes of music on this EP could reasonable be cut down to ten without losing much of the structure that the bands lays out. Human Vice Patrol has talent, but the arrangements during this EP are not thought out well enough to make this EP be a must buy; avoid this and give any future LPs a cursory listen before deciding to pick it up.
Top Track: The Head Down
Rating: 3.0/10
Human Vice Patrol – S/T EP / 2006 Self / 5 Tracks / http://www.humanvicepatrol.com / http://www.myspace.com/humanvicepatrol / Reviewed 08 July 2006
[JMcQ]
