Band:	Chemical Vocation
Album:	Chemical Vocation
Style:
Release date:	2004

01. Unspection
02. I Won't Stay
03. Conversus Locus
04. Dispatch
05. Blackhole Scenery
06. Song For Her

Chemical Vocation plays a style of music that people call "post-hardcore" these days and which is in fact a mish-mash of many styles, including hardcore, melodic metal and emo. Comparisons to such bands as My Chemical Romance, AFI and Alexisonfire can and should be made. I am not really a fan of this style but I have to admit that this EP is actually pretty good and listening to it wasn't a waste of time.

If you're going to make commercial rock music in this day and age this is one way that you can go about it without totally embarrassing yourself. The band does a pretty good job of being aggressive and fairly honest while at the same time having a good ear for pop melodies and memorable refrains. They also usually shy away from sounding too whiny, which is good news for those of us who don't like emo. In fact, in instances where other bands would weep, Chemical Vocation often inserts harsh, almost death metal-like vocals. This is especially true on "Dispatch", which starts in the most "bubble-gum" of ways only to erupt into screaming and aggression halfway through the song. "Blackhole Scenery" is almost as intense as Converge. "I Won't Stay" has a particularly mature melody for this style. The band does a decent job of mixing aggression with melody on the remaining tracks, although I think it would be better if they went for a brutal approach more often.

All in all this is a pretty decent EP from this particular style of music. If the band focuses on making more tracks like "I Won't Stay" and "Blackhole Scenery", I predict a bright future for them. This release will not appeal to most of the visitors of this website but might prove interesting to some of you.