Echobliss - Shed My Skin

Shed My Skin is a CD that shows its talented creators, Echobliss, are willing to conform musically to achieve the big time. It is an extremely standardized CD perfect for sending to labels and A&R professionals. Not a single song deviates from the verse/chorus/verse/chorus/bridge/chorus/altered format, and none of them have any sort of edgy or controversial content (though the disc does have a lot of attitude from the performance aspect). Everything has an extremely catchy hook, whether or not you actually like said hook. Every track is between three and four and a half minutes long. Shed My Skin is an extremely safe and PC EP that could cut a wide marketing swath.

The CD opens with an excellent driving riff reminiscent of the best work of post-grunge bands like Godsmack and Hinder, but the vocals morph the opening song, “Back,” into more of a glam, 1980s pop-metal creature. This description fits each of the four faster songs on the record, and the two elements are largely in conflict, inhibiting the quality of the record. While all members display prodigious talent at various points on the EP (every instrument has solos), the vocalist’s uncanny ability to channel Sebastian Bach makes the dark lyrics that dominate the disc seem almost happy and the overall thrust of the record becomes disingenuous when combined with the driving but peppy instrumentation. In shorter words, it seems like the record is trying to be depressing and daunting, but is simply unable to as the performance brims with unbridled optimism. This is great for a live show (which I can verify because I have seen this band live and they are wonderful), but for the more intellectual pursuit of the EP, not so much. The faster-paced tracks, “Back,” “Shed My Skin,” “Angry Now,” and “Let Me In,” which were my favorites and are the most memorable songs to me, have great mainstream hit potential, but probably won’t impress the musical intelligentsia at SPIN, Revolver, and Rolling Stone. I doubt the band cares. More power to them.

The two remaining tracks do provide some variety while the band slows the tempo a bit. “Way Down” is a power ballad straight out of the 1980s and seems to be trying very hard to get airplay during one of those end-of-episode montages on TV’s Scrubs. “The Well” is more interesting musically, as the band does their best impersonation of Tool, resulting in a track different from any other on the CD (but similar to those on many other CDs).

Shed My Skin is the product of an extremely talented band but is extremely mainstream and sometimes given to clichéd hooks and uncannily familiar vocal and instrumental styles. If you are a fan of eighties metal or the happier shades of post-grunge, you will probably love the CD. If not, it will seem merely average.

RATING: 3 OUT OF 5 STARS