BLACK EP

'Black EP' - The Dear Hunter (7/10)

When Casey Crescenzo announced that The Dear Hunter were embarking on a nine album concept about colors, it's granted that some heads were turned and eyebrows raised. There was even question as to whether this modern progressive band would even go through with such an ambitious endeavor. As it so happens, here they are, in 2011, with a set of nine EPs. As is common with each of these albums, the 'Black EP' is a set of four songs based around the feelings that that color (or tone) spur with Casey and the band. It shouldn't be too much of a surprise, but the music here is quite dark. Putting an emphasis on electronics and percussive sounds here, 'Black EP' is a fairly bleak way to start off 'The Color Spectrum' project, but it's one that works.

Each of the songs here come together to fit a pretty tight-fitting mold. The fact alone that The Dear Hunter manages to find a distinct sound for each of these EPs is brilliant in its own right, and 'Black' does not fail to deliver. Although they maintain their theatrical 'indie' sense of upbeat songwriting, the melodies are a little darker and eerie than usual, and instead of the guitars being the head of the show, some electronics come into play. Although it was jarring to hear at first, The Dear Hunter uses these sounds with moderation, even taking the infamous 'wub wub' of dubstep- an inherently trashy sound- and loading it into the barrel of 'Filth And Squalor', but it's kept on a leash, and never gets obnoxious. As always, Casey's vocals are the highlight of the sound, rising up to the dark intensity of the sound and giving a vocal performance to match. 'Take More Than You Need' is probably my favourite track of the album, although 'This Body' is by far the catchiest, using the dark vibes to create an eerie piece of art rock that conjures some pretty turbulent mental imagery. The songwriting on 'Black' seems to take a backseat to the electronic sounds in terms of how I will remember this EP, but this set is no slouch when it comes to composition. A solid work.

And so it starts with a black. Negative colour, the one associated with sadness, or even death, but of course, my source of inspiration about such matters is mostly from Green Lantern comics (which have it a little bit differently), I myself was never much into "your favourite colour" kind of stuff, but having it in a musical form is intriguing. 18 minutes of darkness, of the more experimental work (I've heard from The Dear Hunter), melodic element still there, but suppressed in favour of dark themes (but never completely gone). It intrigues me as a TDH fan, as a fan of concept albums and as such, Black serves its purpose, with This Body being most reminiscent of the band's roots (Acts 1-3).