Cricketstomper are an indie trio out of Maryland that for some reason is billed as "hard hitting progressive music", although I cannot for the life of me wonder why. My copy of their latest (?) Eye Rock offered no press sheet or any kind of information on the release itself, and the inside of the digipack only reveals that the individuals responsible for this mess go by the names of Fraugman, Masker Raider and Cricketstomper. Great start and to be quite honest it doesn't get much better when it comes to the actual music, which not only suffers from poor production, but poor performance as well. The guitarist's tone is fuzzy throughout and the vocalist just shouts most of the time and when he does try to sing it's nothing more than an annoying monotone. The lyrics are politically themed which isn't a bad thing, when you can set your words to good music, that shows both a sense of variety, but more importantly a sense of melody, both of which apparently weren't too high on their priority list. I dont know maybe I'm being a total hard ass here but on a disc which offers nineteen tracks I expected something, anything, to grab me by the cajones at some point, but it never happened and sadly nothing even stood out as being even remotely memorable.
It's one thing to be quirky and different, and especially in today's convoluted music world, it seems like it's almost a basic necessity. However, Cricketstomper stick out for all the wrong reasons here. My advice to them would be to go back to the drawing board, find their sound, pick a direction, practice, then and only then, record the results for everyone to hear. Sorry to say it but Eye Rock will be nothing more than a beer coaster for this reviewer.
Track Listing
1) You Lied
2) Nomor
3) Black Dreams
4) S.T.F.U.
5) Desecrate The Wall
6) What If
7) Nowhere Is Safe
8) Instead
9) Sniper
10) Whore
11) Hippocrit
12) Born Again
13) Creepy Tunnel
14) Enough
15) Cleargray
16) The Bother
17) Bloody Hands
18) Garbage
19) Blame
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