Premium bring a light edged look at the scene of music straying from intense emotion and instead traveling down the path of a calm journey through sound scapes of alternative, light rapcore and pop sensibility. The band is comparable to a more modern Stone Temple Pilots mixed with perhaps a dash of Liquid Gang. The band combines a very tepid flow throughout most tracks mixing mild rap, little aggression and your basic radio friendly rock. Vocally the music somewhat suffers, Matt goes through the motions with a semi skilled rap that goes off an on but doesn't really captivate the listener. At times he beaks off into angered chants or more aggressive vocal tracks but the problem is that he doesn't sound authentically angry, it feels very devoid of intensity and instead of pushing the listener to get up and do something it instead becomes tiresome and feels too contrived to be believable. It's not really a question of how he feels throughout the songs it just seems to suggest that his vocal range isn't what he would like it to be. Instead his best work shines through when he sticks to his medium tone floating out melodically pleasing vocals that coast stylishly over the plush song structures. Not a bad vocalist by any means, he just doesn't possess the range he tries to achieve and would be better suited to use a loud and soft dynamic rather than to try and let it go full tilt. Guitar work is solid, a good mix of riffs and spacey sounds. although fairly basic there's a good usage of stops and starts as well as silent breaks that make the songs all the more dynamic as well as syncopation with the lyrics on some choruses and verses that heighten the shifts of structure ten fold, not too mention some crafty implementation of a wah-wah pedal. Bass is interesting, a rather heavy approach is taken towards the music with almost looping riffs that are short in length but repeat often giving the songs alot of momentum and almost end up feeling like a constant trudging motion that keeps the tracks fully charged. There's even a slight bit of effects put to use that space the low end out more. Drums are solidly crafted, although there's alot of emphasis on the snare, an ample amount of highhat work is put to use as well. Although at times the snare can feel repetitive it does serve the purpose keeping the rhythm, not too mention the track "Stitch" brings about a highlight that is almost unseen now in today's music, the drum solo. A steady beat is always served up by drummer Pat as well as some extra percussion that keeps things cruising at an earmarked pace. Standout tracks would be "Atrophy" and "Disbelief" the former features a soothing backdrop with a satisfying chorus that feels well placed over top of the dynamic song structure that keeps the listener occupied while the latter features a calming tempo, a fairly weighty groove and just an all around fine tuned structure. The CD does feature some letdowns, the few that would be best mentioned and most prevalent include the vocalist, although he tries to implement a slight rapcore edge his flows aren't very cohesive and don't fit with the music well, sometimes it's best to stick to what you do best and in this case his melodic vocals take that position. Another thing that can get mildly tiresome is that the guitars are almost restrained by standard tuning, it seems that more lower experimentation in thicker tones would really give the more coarse and distorted riffs that extra edge. Finally there's a few songs that just trudge on and go nowhere, not a bad band by any means but a band that still needs a bit more time writing together to hit that almighty sweet spot of a groups sound. Premium bring a different approach to music, not afraid to bring medium tempo'd pulsing rhythms with crispy distortion and well laid out song structure that gives nod to emo and alternative, the band come ready to play. Unfortunately though it just might take a bit more musical maturing to get the perfect Premium blend.
(3.5 / 5)