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One Dying Secret

A Moment Of Truth For A Year's Worth Of Lies EP

Written by: TL on 21/01/2009 15:20:53

Honestly speaking guys, I don't know what to do with the EP that's the target of this review, and seeing as repeat listens haven't made any progress for me, I hate to say it, but here goes nothing: The problem with One Dying Secret's "A Moment Of Truth For A Year's Worth Of Lies EP" is that it really feels like an album I should denote for being formulaic and shallow, but that just doesn't feel right because I have somehow taken an unnatural liking in it.

The EP is the band's first after picking up a new vocalist, and I think that he is mainly to blame for my affection. The band itself plays a very strict and straightforward brand of dark melodic rock that strolls by at mid-tempo and seems built for grandeur - The kind you'd really expect from a band like Saosin, except much dirtier than the pretty high pitches they operate at. Again, frontman Ryan is to blame I think, as his performance is worlds away from the choir boy norm of most emo-rock bands. You'd expect this band to have a singer that would sound like Anthony Green or Johnny Craig, but instead what you get is a raw, apathetic and slightly disturbing delivery that I've only heard the likes of in the voices of Matt Skiba (Alkaline Trio) and Steven Battelle (LostAlone).

The end product is closer to old Finch though, courtesy of the highly predictable but also highly dependable song structures. You know; catchy guitar hook under verse, abrupt power chords for build-up, both for chorus, repeat, insert screamed bridge, repeat chorus, fade out. It's tried and true and that seems to be good enough for One Dying Secret, considering how much the five tracks on offer here resemble each other. Now normally, this would be the place where I'd start giving them a hard time about that, but unfortunately my mind is still stuck on track 2, "Anchors And Compasses", trying to figure out how something so simple can still work so awesomely. Considering the impact of this song and the charismatic voice of the band's singer, I would've considered it a no-brainer for a label to pick them up and make a boatload from letting every alt-rock radio station in the United States rape it to death. This song has 'cash cow' written all over it, that's how much single potential I think it has. I guess that either goes to show what I know - or what the labels know.. Maybe they are in fact sick of making money on something that's been done before though? Even if I wouldn't mind them doing so on this occasion? This song alone is worth a grade of 8 at the least.

Anyway, "A Moment Of Truth..." is an EP worth checking out even for this song alone. The others are cool too, just simply not as cool, and they pale pretty fast because they're as similar as is the case. This is a band with some potential though, and if they can diversify their material some more on an eventual album release, I don't see why they shouldn't get a fair share of recognition for it.

Download: Anchors And Compasses
For The Fans Of: Finch, LostAlone, Alkaline Trio, Saosin
Listen: myspace.com/onedyingsecret

Release Date 24.08.2008
**UNSIGNED BAND**