Asteria - Slip into Something More Comfortable Review

Asteria - Slip Into Something More Comfortable / 2007 Broken English / 10 Tracks / http://www.asteria-music.com / http://www.brokenenglishrecords.com /

Asteria tries to make it big in the dominant emo paradigm that is present in popular music. During a track like "Drink Life to the Lees", the emo style blends with hardcore screaming and an A Static Lullaby style to make something that is ultimately familiar but slightly different than all of the other bands that are currently on the market. The one thing that really breaks the band free from all of the rest of the bands has to be the solid bass lines that achieve prominence during tracks on this disc; the heavier end, which is bolstered by the inclusion of double bass drumming, does imbue on Asteria a slightly different sound from other bands. While "Drink Life to the Lees" is a strong track, it still lacks something to allow for Asteria to be the next big, radio-emo band.

There are nine other cuts on "Slip Into Something More Comfortable", so I am confident based on their first track that they will be able to find that perfect combination. The slower tempo of "Pet Names & Fake Fights" attempts to recall the emotional intensity of acts like Desert City Soundtrack while still working in the dominant sound of the era. The melding of the two styles is not perfect, and the long lines sputtered out by the lead singer sound too melodramatic with the music present on the track. "A Lesson in Charades" is a faster track but continues to have melodramatic lines work on top of more "straight" lines. Perhaps if the instrumentation on this disc was a little more spastic and fitting, as the band tries to do at points during "A Lesson in Charades" at point, the result would be success. "The Taste the Touch" seems to be a song that is groomed for single-status, but even the inclusion of interesting instrumentation on this track cannot distinguish the track from the rest of the music oh "Slip Into Something More Comfortable".

The band is very musically adept, but the arrangements that they tend to use are more safe than anything, never going for the gusto that is needed to make the track in question an instant classic, or at least something that is played 20 times a day on select radio stations. Keep listening to Asteria in the next few years and chances they will be able to bring something even more impressive than this album to fruition.

Top Tracks: Slip Into Something More Comfortable, Midnight Fix

Rating: 4.9/10