Review Summary: I your the kind of person that likes to be challenged then steer clear of this EP, however for the casual listeners it may well hold some value.
When a band completely nails their sound on one song it inevitably makes me think one of two things about the rest of their material. Either the rest generally does not meet the high standards set by the first song or that I’m not listening hard enough. Believe me I’ve tried listening to the rest of this EP but the lead track Permanent is in another league to everything else, which is strange because Permanent is not even that great a song.
Black Lines to Battlefields is a five track EP released by a Christian pop punk band, the now defunct
Acceptance. While the band never reinvented the wheel in their five or so years of existence they did release a string of very listenable rock infused pop punk albums. Sound wise they sound similar to
Anberlin in that they mix a standard pop punk vibe with a few more riffs and a little heaviness without coming close popcore territory, the band themselves would claim they place pop punk instrumentation into a heavy metal framework but I feel my description brings both clarity and accuracy. The guitars are tuned down a step, not that it adds much to their sound, as all instrumentation is kept incredibly simple. Jason Vena again sounds similar to the
Anberlin singer, but a little less original and little whinier. I guess he’s a highlight of the band but he really isn’t any better than the standard pop punk vocalist.
As already mentioned the lead track
Permanence has absolutely everything to it. It is faster and more interesting than the rest of the EP and a memorable chorus of,
“It’s permanent, nothing is permanent.” It begins with the simplest lead riff this side of a Simple Plan album, but once to vocals kick in the song gets into gear. Listening to it back, I know that this song is bad; I know it’s unoriginal, poorly constructed and downright amateurish, yet despite all of this I enjoy the sing-a-long and listen to it every now and then. On
Seeing Is Believing, the band cover those challenging octave chords again, while the opening palm mute of
Bleeding Heart sounds like it was recorded on a four track. Lyrically they are both horrible, the chorus of the former being,
“I miss you, and I miss you and I miss you more,” or on the latter we get,
“This bleeding heart, you can’t fix me up.”
“Black lines can turn to battlefields when they are drawn in pen.”
Everything you need to know about why this band is going to receiving a poor write up is contained in that line. It’s boring, meaningless and worn through and through. Worse yet is when it’s sung over four chords with some irritating vocals (They really start to annoy after a while). Initially I was going to give
Black Lines To Battlefields a decent rating based on the strength of their one relatively good song, but they really don’t warrant such a rating. I am of the opinion that bands should try and be original and unique.
Acceptance really don’t come any close to either of those things. Some people will enjoy this I’m sure but I can’t say I’m one of them.
