Review Summary: It's like a sandwich, beginning and last two tracks are great, but the filler has gone stale
I am a huge fan of Breaking Benjamin, as most people will have noticed from my fanboy attitude on my review of Saturate (a review that didn't go down well at all). I have all their albums on CD, all aside from their EP, simply because its impossible to find if you're from the UK. So I'm reviewing an album I had to download from an MP3 site (don't shoot me).
I really enjoy these early versions of Home, Water and Shallow Bay. I don't enjoy the earlier versions of Polyamorous or Medicate. Home is hard hitting, heavy and grinding. Bens voice sounds amazing on it, albeit a but gritty due to the lack of decent recording software. After the album opened with this, I was almost sure the rest would be just as good. I was wrong. Medicate is just bad here. It sounds like it was made using a Casio keyboard other than a guitar. Bens voice is hard to distinguish here, amongst all the noise. Of course that is most likely down to the bad recording software, but still.
Polyamorous is not as bad as Medicate here, but its still pretty bad. It just sounds so half hearted and soft, so much so it could quite easily be a roughed up acoustic. Bens singing here however is wonderful. He hits every note, and his voice is more rough and angry than on the remastered version on Saturate. Water and Shallow Bay are both awesome tracks here. Water is brilliant with its shouting chorus and chunky heavy guitar rhythm, and Shallow bay is as good as it is on Saturate.
All in all its a good EP. Breaking Benjamin have certainly gone on to do better albums, far better ones, but for an EP, this is a great effort. It's not perfect but its not awful. It sticks your head underwater but doesn't let you drown (yuck why'd I type that). Breaking Benjamin fans will enjoy this album greatly, fans of the post-grunge genre will find a few good songs but won't say "OMG THIS IS AMAZING". Good luck getting your hands on it however, its very hard to find these days
