PORTMANTEAU

Portmanteau is the second EP release by Ben Shrap under the name Cloudkicker. The EP features four songs and is 20 minutes in length. The EP can be legally downloaded for free along with the rest of Cloudkickers discography. Cloudkicker's music features a heavy and thick guitar sound most of the time, backed up with a drum machine.

Apart from the often very heavy guitar driven metal, there are softer, atmospheric moments on the EP too. These moments are an excellent addition, as they give the EP a much more atmospheric feel. The heavy parts of the album often are very technical, featuring several guitar tracks creating a thick wall of sound. Sometimes this wall gets a bit too thick in my opinion, and makes me unable to fully enjoy the music. Another reason for this is the sound of the drum machine, which sounds very unbalanced at times. Definitely the cymbals sound incredibly overwhelming most of the time. This all doesn't mean I can't enjoy the EP. No, Ben Sharp is a very talented musician and he really shows what he is capable of here. Unfortunately I feel that the EP could be a much more enjoyable effort with a better and more balanced production.

I rate this EP two stars. It's still a somewhat enjoyable EP at times and one must keep in mind as well that it's released as a free download. Because of that, people should bear in mind that you can't really go wrong downloading it.