A glimpse of Italy's emo scene, not wholly different from the rest of the world, but refreshingly more varied...
Hypomelodic emocore from Italy are what Sundae Milk are apparently all about. Pressed 'Back' yet? Wait! Don't let it turn you off, it's not as bad as it sounds. Don't think they're just imitators of the current trendy rubbish flooding forth from the uninspired masses of America's saturated scene. This band go further back, back to the slightly confused days of what followed punk, the hardcore, and post-hardcore and subsequent scenes. Think of when it all seemed to meld and come right though, between the brash and nearly unlistenable late 80s hardcore and the mainstream, fakey emo of the early 00s.
Rival Schools, Hundred Reasons, Biffy Clyro, these sorts of bands Sundae Milk sound like, and that's a refreshing break from what's become the norm of Funeral For A Friend et al. There's still all the obligatory shouty bits and lyrics about lies and emotion, especially so on 'Same Sick Defiance', but it's not overly tedious and therefore bearable going on enjoyable.
If you've got that kind of pent-up and angry energy in you, then dancing round your room to this, or going to see them in concert and jumping in the moshpit is probably the best way to put it to good use. The melodies and tune of the songs maintain a harder edge, whilst being extremely poppy and catchy, 'Climbing Up Microwaves' is a winning combination of rampant beats and well-structured guitars with varying vocal styles that set it apart from the plethora of other acts in this genre that you can't tell one from the other.
Your concentration certainly wanes as the album continues on though and it all becomes fuller of shouting and 'emotion'... Still, there's the fact you were tuned in at the start, more than you can say for a lot of albums from this vein. It's definitely a bit more advanced and varied than your average emo outing, yes there's the overtones of weird dress and Flock Of Seagulls hairstyles, but it combines old-school punk ideas and what came after and mixes it up a bit.
For one of the most formulaic genres in music and a genre that doesn't float my boat, with it's immature ideas, staleness, and even glimpses of sexism (titles like Panic At The Disco's 'Lying is the Most Fun A Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off'), this album from Sundae Milk actually comes across as something different, and for that quality alone will it get a better rating than most.