Album Review: The Malheruex - Nightmares EP
The Malheruex are a five piece rock band from Los Angeles, CA who recently released their new EP called "Nightmares" and was produced by Jim Wirt, who has produced for bands such as Incubus and The Rocket Summer.The band is made up of Chris Castillo on lead vocals, as well guitar, Adrian Ocampo (guitar), Omar Loera (bass), Carlos Sanchez (drums) and former guitarist and backing vocals performed by John Alaimo, who has since been replaced by Matt Siordia.
The 4 track EP starts off with title track "Nightmares" with it's riff-led guitar parts and straining vocals that are reminiscent of early Taking Back Sunday before going into a catchy chorus and that will probably stay in your head for a few days, despite the somewhat "emo" lyrics of "I will die for you".
"Flip The Switch" is a fast-paced bassy affair with subtle synth parts. However the vocals fail to grab the listener and just help the song move along. While track 3 is "Drowning In Numbers" is quite an angry track and you can hear the bitterness in vocalist Chris Castillo's voice . The track also sees the inclusion of gang vocals and comes off as a positive song.
The EP closes with "Dust" is a dark, eerie track with begins with a deep, heavy guitar before the band screams and shouts it's head off until Castillo's vocals bring some form of calm to the track with a well-paced melody.
On the whole The Malheruex write good, solid rock songs. However in this day and age, good songs unfortunately get you nowhere. Which is a shame for a band as talented as this, especially with well-crafted songs. It's disappointing that The Malheruex will probably put in the 'sounds like Saosin' bracket, in a time when a small band like this, struggle to get major exposure when they should be on the same level as the latter-mentioned band.
4/5
Links:
Myspace
Purevolume
Buzznet
