Kids Like Us is nominally a Florida hardcore band, but their ambitions wind up stretching their sound to encompass noise-rock, doom, and metal, and even a little bit of Southern rock. They've got the hardcore gang-shout down, but lead vocalist Lars' delivery is like a cross between the usual HC drill instructor and a slurring sociopath like
Eyehategod's Michael Williams. Some of the riffs have quite a bit of sludge to them. There's some surprisingly top-shelf guitar work on this album, too, as evidenced by the bluesy solo on "Black Box Warning." The basslines are thunderous and almost detuned, recalling industrial metal of the '90s like
Prong, and the drumming has a nasty metallic edge -- this guy seems to have heard Lars Ulrich's snare on St. Anger and taken it as an example to be emulated. This album goes by fast -- as with their prior releases, it's over in well under a half-hour, with only two songs passing the three-minute mark -- and like their other CDs, the booklet art folds out into a really cool cartoon poster. It deserves an audience beyond hardcore kids, though. ~ Phil Freeman