We Can See the Sky from Here

A band that can be honestly described as "a mixture of post-hardcore and rock" is a band that is going to have to work hard to distinguish itself from the seemingly inexhaustible supply of similarly inclined young groups currently clogging the rosters of independent labels all across the country. On their debut album, A Burning Water does a pretty good job of achieving that goal in a couple of ways: for one thing, the band photo seems to indicate that none of them wears the dorky diagonal-bangs haircut that every other post-hardcore band seems to feel the need to sport these days. So that's good. But more importantly, they focus on songcraft rather than spleen. This means that there's something to their songs deeper than the surface screaming, and it means that they tend to use the screaming as a garnish rather than as the main course. In fact, the screaming (on songs like "Out in the Dark" and "This Is a Test") tends to sound kind of like an afterthought, as if they're throwing it in to remind you that they really are post-hardcore. But as it turns out, the best and most interesting track on the album is an instrumental (titled, originally enough, "Instrumental"), and the second best is a relatively quiet midtempo number called "A Passing Wish." Everything on the album is worth hearing, and some of it approaches excellence. Recommended.