Unsung Hero - Esprit De Corps
Sometimes it's worth waiting a little while to get something right rather than just releasing a record because you can and you want to. Unsung Hero have unfortunately seemingly rushed out their debut EP, to coincide with touring I assume, when it could have done with some extra work.
Esprit De Corps puts me in the mind of My Chemical Romance mixed with Slipknot and just a dash of crazed schizophrenia added. On the first few listens to the mini-album I assumed that it was me with the problem and that the songs would grow on me and lose their often impenetrable and seemingly endless slight changes in tempo and riffage, to give way to an enlightened musical state. I thought I was obviously not as clever as the band and couldn't appreciate true genius. However, as I grew to know the songs a bit better it dawned on me that even Slipknot have melodies and hooks you can get into, but these are lacking from the second half of this CD. I may be wrong however, as track 5 was completely silent in my review copy, perhaps the song was just too awesome to let us journalists hear. Or perhaps it was just another example of a badly put together record.
The songs themselves don't really complement each other and sound like they've been mixed and recorded in different studios at different times. I'd hazard a guess and say that the band had a few recordings knocking around, suddenly got a deal and enough money to record a few more, so they decided to stick them all on a mini-album together instead of sitting down and writing and recording a decent, coherent record.
The first two tracks do show enormous potential despite the rest. The structures seem better planned and the guitar work, although still edgy and inventive, sits much better around the half sung, half shouted vocals. Lyrically the band excel, the vocals are definitely the highlight of the CD, complete with random screaming at the end of songs, beautiful.
I really can't decide if I love or hate Unsung Hero, I don't think Esprit De Corps does them any kind of justice as a band and I hope that they get into the studio soon and record a full album properly. I can see them rivalling My Chemical Romance in a few years but sadly I'll have to give this taster a mediocre score until I'm proved wrong, and I'm sure I will be!