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After a genre has seen its heyday with the mainstream listener, it's always sad to see a group arrive after the fad has almost passed. While groups like Thursday and Taking Back Sunday have established a fairly loyal fan base and continue to expand their style, new "clones" seem to pop up everywhere in attempts to woo listeners to their albums. Here is where Chasing Victory's debut EP, A Not So Tragic Cover-Up, comes into play. In fairly pathetic fashion, Chasing Victory blasts through five tracks of overdone and mundane emo/hardcore infused rock. The eigthteen minutes of music goes by so quickly that nothing on the album ever grabs the listener's ear, and if it ever did, there's certainly not enough content there to hold one's attention very long.

I did notice one thing that is somewhat interesting. Picking through the nasal vocals of Adam Harrell, there is a scream very similar to Ilkka Viitasalo of the now defunct Swedish metal band, Selfmindead. Maybe if Harrell continued on that path, he could help carry the band into territory long vacated by Selfmindead.

Basically, what it comes down to is this: if Chasing Victory plans on a future beyond the Christian bookstore distribution that Mono Vs. Stereo will provide, the band should plan to stop wearing its influences on its sleeve so heavily and make music that will keep a listener coming back, listen after listen. What's here is boring and completely uninspired. So far, I'm not convinced there's much of a future here.

Zach Delph  10/17/04