Today when homosapiens talk about the old school of hardcore they usually refer somewhere between the time periods of the early 1980s and the late 1980s. But as time goes on the gap begins to get larger and the definition of new school is constantly being reinvented. Look at a band like Youth Of Today for instance, when they emerged from a day of math class on positive integers I'm sure people called them new school, and bands like Bad Brains and DOA old school. Now people have added Youth Of Today into this bin of "old school" and I'm sure in ten years bands like Bane and American Nightmare (Give Up the Ghost) will be referred to as old school. "So what exactly is new school these days," many have pondered, and Killing The Dream is a great possible solution to this question, due to the uprising of bands such as With Honor, Comeback Kid, Life Long Tragedy, etc.
Killing the Dream has a touch of metal that bleeds in every so often, but the metal definitely doesn't take center stage. While the touch of metal is probably because Joel, guitarist, plays in Embrace The End, it adds a texture of technicality that makes it sound tight. There is a definite feel of hardcore with tons of energy and passion blaring from the speakers, fast drum beats and grooves that'll have you two stepping/skanking in no time. While most of the tunes are done in an aggressive fashion, the use of clean-melodic guitars adds an interesting dynamic. In particular, the beginning of "10 1/2" has a really nicely done intro that smacks you in the titties with some harmonics and rock styled drum beats that'll knock your legs from beneath you. When you attempt to get up punk beats and semi-heavy guitar riffs keep you down until you die! HA.
My favorite part of the record, although very subtle, is in the song "Play The Tune Or Die", right near the end when the cameo vocalist's voice cracks. While it's not the most noticeable or important part of the record, it gives this feel like the album is being performed live and the listener is the only one in attendance. Oh man, you are so lucky! I wish I would be lucky enough one day to see a private showing of Killing The Dream. Well...maybe one day I'll be fortunate as you. Until that day, I'll continue staying up until 3 AM in my underwear refreshing message boards. BACK TO REALITY...Eli's voice is really edgy and it definitely sounds like he's putting every muscle into every word. You can just feel his hands being clenched and his throat being strained. The way they have his voice doing one line over another provides a machine gun attack of words while every so often the mob vocals come in like grenades and blow shit up. This leaves a nice place for the breakdown, which Killing The Dream executes very well without sounding cheesy and "TUFF".
While not the longest EP ever, there is only eleven minutes of new music, the added five songs from the demo are added so you n00bz can feel comfortable on the bandwagon. Although the vinyl release doesn't have these demo tracks, it's limited and has ultra crucial colors.
