The Stryder

Jungle City Twitch (Equal Vision)
by Tim Den

The Stryder were always better than the rest, and they prove it again on Jungle City Twitch. Even with a change of singers, the Long Island quartet somehow manage to sound tighter, more complex, less cliché, more clever, and overall more original than 99% of their peers. They’ve got a penchant for tricky, heavy riffing (opener “Billy” being the best example), but they can pull back in a split second (check out the dual vocal off-rhythms in “Crook”). Still overbearing on the sentimental stuff? Yeah, but you can hardly tell with the guitars all crunchy and shit. Maybe it’s something in the water, cuz NY outfits like The Stryder and Coheed And Cambria are definitely taking emo to another level.
(PO Box 14 Hudson, NY 12534)