With Increase are a very young band out of Florida. I discovered these guys after getting into Losin' It, who also call FLHC home. Their style of melodic hardcore with strong musicianship and insightful lyrics are a great combination.
The first song and title track ("Signs Of The Time) is my favorite. Maybe it's because usually the hardcore I listen to rarely breaks the 3 minute-mark, but I enjoyed every second of this mintue-and-a-half cut. There's a lot of variation musically that I came to enjoy throughout the whole record.
You wouldn't know unless you were watching your iPod or whatever listening device you were using, but "Signs Of The Time" transitions directly into "Unhealed." This song starts out with a riff that would be more suitable on a Jimmy Eat World record, but it's nonetheless catchy. This is where I noticed the songs started to get more and more dark and even more personal. The opening lyrics are " thanks for wasting my time, taking breath out of my forsaken life. time lost, time wasted." Again the song showcases their unique musicianship, adding in a clean passage near the end, but I definitely think some of the length could've been cut. I felt some interest lost listening to over 5-minute songs.
Next up is "Give," lyrically my favorite track. The vocalist shines on this track, having a vocal solo near the beginning. It basically deals with hating the world, but justifying it in wanting hope, something to live for, and something to die for. Musically, it is probably the most lacking of the four. It consists of your standard upbeat hardcore song with some transitions into slower sections. However, this isn't necessarily a bad thing since it lets you focus more on the lyrics.
Last is "Dig Deeper." Unfortunately, I didn't feel this was a great closer to a much better-than-average group of 4 songs. There really isn't anything stand-out about it for me, it could just get grouped along with the rest of the songs on the album. This was also the longest song of the 4, clocking in at 5:30.
Overall, I definitely recommend this album to any fan of hardcore, or even alternative music. It's a solid release by a young band, and they definitely have great things in store in the future if they can improve upon this album. Although the production was ok and two songs overstayed their welcome in my opinion, I highly recommend giving it a listen and keeping this band on your radar.
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