New Jersey's Irving Rose have managed to capture a style of technical metal that almost serves as an intersection between the career paths of such current scene luminaries as The Dillinger Escape Plan, Converge, Poison The Well, Underoath and more. Sure, in this day and age that isn't much of a feat in itself, but this quintet don't stop there and instead choose to put their own sinister spin on the style, utilizing eerie keyboard aided melodies and pitfall after pitfall of conflicting breakdowns to thoroughly bruise their audiences ears.

When listening to this EP its hard not to be captivated by the sheer ferocity it exudes. But while such intensity does serve a strong purpose for the band, it is not their only defining factor. What really sets them apart is the constant struggle between differing moods and tempos. In fact, its almost as though genre defying bands like Mr. Bungle played a bit part in the incubation of this quintet as the way they slyly incorporated everything from prog, funk, jazz and more is all present here -at least in faint traces. What is also present here though is an off color approach that truly compliments and differentiates the bands careening metallic assault into a far more encompassing campaign of intelligent brutality.

Thanks to this expansive musical approach the group are able to implement a number of different instruments throughout the course of the disc and yet never stray too far into eclectic territory. From acoustic guitars, to keys, bass drops and even a hint of tribal styled drumming, this EP serves up a frightening amount of depth. And while melody also plays a substantial role in the songs, it is by no means the bargain bin emo crooning that has been done to death so many times over already. At their heart Irving Rose are a brilliant metal band with little restraint - a smoldering blast of napalm complete with snipers to precisely pick off the fatally wounded. But just because they're well trained and ruthlessly able to create massive carnage doesn't mean that they don't like to have a little fun now and then and the darker side of the material contained here clearly shows that.