Evergreen Terrace sound like a band divided on their first album for Metal Blade, 2007's cheekily named
Wolfbiker. On the one hand, they appear eager to please their new backers with a set of devastating deathcore holocausts like opener "Bad Energy Troll," the hardcore-on-steroids of "Rolling Thunder Mental Illness," and the title track. On the other, it is business as usual with the light/dark extremities explored by the likes of "High Tide or No Tide," "Where There Is Fire We Will Carry Gasoline," and "The Damned" -- textbook screamo, in other words. Sadly, neither facet of
Evergreen Terrace's personality adds anything new to its respective domain, and the stark reality is that only a few of these songs are well-rounded enough to leave a lasting mark -- namely the central tandem of "Rip This!" and "Starter." And then there's the ultimate sin employed by many trend-following screamo bands of abusing gratuitous comedy titles that have no relation whatsoever to the actual lyrics -- e.g. "Chaney Can't Quite Riff Like Helmet's Page Hamilton," which only cancels out any chance of taking this otherwise very catchy and anthemic tune seriously. Not surprisingly,
Evergreen Terrace found no love beyond their established fan base with
Wolfbiker, which wound up shifting fewer units than its predecessor, and denoted the band's declining popularity, in tandem with the screamo scene at large. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia