EXPERIMENTS IN MASS APPEAL

"Experiments In Mass Appeal" is more powerful than their debut "Milliontown", and they have also changed vocalists leaving John Mitchell to focus on his guitar playing. Declan Burke from DARWIN'S RADIO is the new singer and he also adds some acoustic guitar to the mix. For me this is an upgrade on their debut. Interesting thing is that there is no information in the liner notes except for the song titles. Great pictures though that are really humerous.

"Experiments In Mass Appeal" is my favourite track, it opens with gentle guitar and bass as piano tinkles away. Reserved vocals join in. An explosive sound arrives 2 1/2 minutes in. Impressive. Absolutely ripping guitar a minute later. A calm before 4 1/2 minutes and then it kicks in again. Powerful ending as well. "Welcome To Nowhere" is mellow with vocals and piano before we are hit with an outburst of sound. The song settles back down but is fuller than the intro. Great contrasts in this one too with a powerful ending as well. "Pocket Sun" features this cool guitar melody as vocals repeat the same line.The tempo picks up as a barage of drums comes in. A devastating soundscape after 3 minutes. What a fantastic song ! "Saline" is the first song that I would classify as good and not great. Perhaps because it's fairly mellow overall.

"Dear Dead Days" opens with a powerful and chaotic soundscape. Vocals and piano a minute in. Violin follows before it kicks back in before 2 minutes. Blistering guitar solo 6 minutes in. "Falling Down" has a good beat to it. I like when it calms down on the chorus. Great sound 3 1/2 minutes in as the guitar grinds away. "You / I" is a very short track with reserved vocals and piano. "Toys" is uptempo with vocals. This is a fun song that would fit well on THE AMBER LIGHT's latest album called "Play". Very similar style. Lots of energy. "Wonderland" is the epic at almost 16 minutes. It opens with pulsing sounds before piano and vocals take over a minute in. It kicks into gear 2 1/2 minutes in. It stops completely 6 minutes in and returns fully at 7 1/2 minutes. Piano, acoustic guitar and vocals dominate the rest of the way.This song was a bit of a disappointment for me, but it's still pretty good.

The frost is getting thicker folks. 3.5 stars.