OUR CROSS TO BEAR 2009 DEMO REVIEW

OUR CROSS TO BEAR is a hardcore band out of middletown, new york playing early a more modern sounding early-2000's inspired hardcore. one thing right off the bat, the name doesnt do it for me. it would definitely make an awesome album name, but as a band name its not working. but onto the music: the first thing i noticed about this demo is that its well produced and high quality, mixed very well for a demo which is awesome. the vocalist seems to be an angry dude, but sometimes his gruffer yelling approach doesnt quite fit the music. i will give him points for not succumbing to a typical vocal style and for not going for straight "wes-worship," which with this style of hardcore would be easy to fall into. maybe this is his first time doing vocals, maybe not, but with a little work he could really bring a lot more to this band, because his vocals are good, they just need some work with this particular project. some of the gang vocals sound a little stale and unnecessary, but they work perfectly in the track "leave mine to me" which is styled a little more like a hardcore punk anthem, it works out awesome (EDIT: "leave mine to me" is a bad religion cover and im a total tool for not realizing that and just thinking it was familiar-sounding for no real reason. LOL@me). my only REAL qualm with this demo is sometimes the guitar leads can go a little overboard. dont get me wrong, they are cool a lot of the time and add to the songs, but i think taking it down a notch would actually up the quality of the songs as a whole.

all in all, this is an awesome 3 song demo. if youre into AN or carry on, you would definitely be into this band. with a little work, this band could definitely turn some heads, ill keep my eye on them. check our their myspace and grab the demo at the mediafire link below.

http://www.myspace.com/ourcrosstobear
http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=9ad0accaec1d641e9bf8d6369220dcab60e4f483a7eae3ec5621d66e282a0ee8

TRACKLISTING:
1. the chin
2. underground
3. leave mine to me