I prepared to listen to the debut EP, "The Seaside", by Indiana based duo, WHALE BONES. It was a standard musical listening experience, mood and atmosphere, nothing strange. As usual, I pressed play on the first track and was expecting to be either barraged by hard riffs and incoherent screaming, or a pretty intro followed by hard riffs and screaming. I was expecting something Hardcore, or at least Fantasy Metal, with a name like WHALE BONES. I was completely thrown off, I put on "The Current" and thought the pretty, well-arranged intro would develop into chaos, but then the vocals came in and they were clean and clear. "Okay, this could be a Screamo album" I thought to myself, "they do have some elements of THURSDAY in there". But something was off; the vocalist sounded way too coffee-shop for a Metal band and the instrumental section seemed to teeter more on the Post-Rock side of things. It was like getting ready to listen to some hard, fast-paced music and finding your SLAYER CD replaced with BLOC PARTY.

The guys behind WHALE BONES obviously do have some Metal influence in their tracks; the second song "Hiding from the Sea" is one distortion level and raspy backing vocals from a Metalcore song (okay, they almost get angry at about 1:30, but then it just cuts off). The entire EP has an early 2000's Emo feel to it as well, "I Can't Live Again" starts with slow, "woe is me" lyrics backed by piano and erupts with a grungy staccato riff. It reminded me of bands like THE WEAKERTHANS or FRIGHTENED RABBIT. The fourth track "Exhausted Forgiveness" goes back to the more Metalcore side of things musically; lyrically it's the same sad lyrics that are prevalent through the entire album.

"Exhausted Forgiveness" is the last track with lyrics on the EP; "Seaside" is a calm instrumental track, kind of a cleanser for the sadness of the rest of the album. I wouldn't be doing WHALE BONES justice if I didn't give them a nod for their painstaking use of nautical imagery. It's an entire EP about love, hate and forgiveness and how swiftly these things can happen, like a current. The music itself even has a quality that makes it sound "submerged". It's imagery that's barely subtle, but ties the entire project up in a satisfying fashion. "The Seaside" was unexpected for me, it's not typically what I choose to listen to but it's pretty and obviously written with a lot of dedication and love.<