garrison

the silhouette

‘Garrison is an inconsisten band, and sometimes they just slap you in the face. This would be one of those instances.

The band’s most recent EP, “The Silhouette,” a younger, feistier brother to “The Model,” is about as loud, angry, and jaded as the band has been to date. Take the record’s first track for example. “Come On Die Young (No Seriously),” which bears no resemblance to the band C.O.D.Y., is just shy of two minutes of fervent chanting “Come on, come on, come on die young.” End of story, end of song.

Fortunately, the aggression burns out and exits early. The jaded nature of the songs runs the course strong, though. By the third track, “God Is Not On Our Side,” Garrison has stepped back to the formula that worked so well on their first EP, “The Bend Before the Break.” At no point during this record do they surpass the musical perfection of some of their earlier works, such as “Serious Heavy Drama,” but the second half of this EP comes close, though.

There are just a few anger management issues that are holding the band back and need to be worked out. Lines like “Just pull the trigger quick and stop wasting our time,” from “We Know Our Demographic” prove that point rather well.

In most of the band’s early catalogue, singer Joseph Grillo utilizes both his scream and his whine in a way that complements the songs tremendously. Somewhere around the recording of their last full-length, “Be A Criminal,” he changed his vocal stylings. It became forcedly deeper. It appears that he discovered the invaluable qualities of his voice. The first song on the new EP has gruff and unpolished quality to it, but he quickly melds old with new, and by the third track, the old won out. The music has that Summer of Killing Flies feel to it again.

If nothing else, “The Silhouette” shows a step in the right direction for the band. The music is regressing, but in a way for which we can all be thankful.