Mr. Downstairs erupt with the fury of Snot and the lush harmonics of acts like Further and Shun on this release. Paying fine attention to both harmony and aggression, their material is intense and cathartic, filled with unexpected blistering throaty outbursts and spiraling verses which entangle the listener in their web like ambiance, yet still retain a somewhat new metal meets punk and hardcore demeanor that keeps the steam pumping during the more heated moments.

Vocally band front man Brian works together with guitarist Anthony, interchanging melody with psychotic roars to create an end result that is as surprising as it is enjoyable. Possessing slight similarities to Taproot front man Stephen Richards, there are warm doses of melody shaped through a medium ranged vocal pitch that is mixed in with off the handle screams, forming a style that brings to mind departed Snot front man Lynn Strait. Coupled with colorful instrumental plans of attack, the band utilize various musical avenues to back the vocals such as the bassy grooves laid down on the almost funk tinged "Blueballs" or the hypnotic guitar work and two faced assault of anger included on the near 6 minute opus "Overturned". Its as though each musician lets each other aggressively take the lead, which in the end makes for an intriguing and versatile auditory palette of musical ideas.

From beautiful melody and harmonics to heavy bullheaded stomps filled with crunchy guitar and abrasive vocals, this band represent a unique pairing of drastically different ideas done right. Their talent and grace at merging extreme anger with a remorseful and calm tranquillity is something that has to be experienced to be believed. Sure there's a few blunt touches of hardcore colliding head on with new metal here, but this band is by no means anything like the cookie cutter clones that swamp the scene today. In fact, it seems like their only weakness could be the tendency to draw each song out to a questionable length, as almost all the tracks included here clock in at around 4-5 minutes. This wouldn't be a bad thing normally, but on most of the songs it is usually due to uninspiring outros or breakdowns, which are easily forgotten. This is however a forgivable offense, because in the long run the great music and abundance of creative ideas the band have, plus the skill with which they are able execute them, make this release one of the better independent efforts to have been put out in recent years. Indeed its hard not to feel that this is one of the most energetic and brightest bands to flip the scene sideways since Snot first emerged in the mid 90's and even though Mr. Downstairs aren't extremely challenging or doing something completely unheard of, it shouldn't be long till these boys deservingly make the trek upstairs and set up shop where the whole world can get a taste of what they have to offer.