On their first full-length release,
the Hurt Process played a formulaic brand of rock common to the late '90s and early 2000s -- that is, a blend of punk, hardcore, metal, and pop; much alternation of all-out crunching passages with more subdued, contemplative ones; and vocals that ran the gamut from a throat-full-o'-razor-blades growl to high, yearning sweet harmonies. It might not be too distinctive, but it's tight and well done here, almost slickly so. "I'm just drowning in confused emotion, I don't know where to...stand and how to feel," they sing in "Clarity," and that's a sentiment that runs through much of the material: young guys in turbulence trying to connect in the face of a reality that's more difficult and complex than they're prepared for, though the tone isn't as despairing here as it is in many releases of this sort. A lot of it turns out to be about stormy personal relationships when you read the fine print, though their horizons aren't strictly limited to such subject matter, as demonstrated by the pirate tale "The Beast Sails In" and some other lyrics here and there. Perhaps this is the reaction of a "rockist," but they would have done well to dispense with the almost gratuitously ugly, gravelly vocal bits and focus on the more conventional higher-range singing and harmonies, as they're actually not bad vocalists when they take that line of attack. ~ Richie Unterberger