Sunday Driver

A Letter To Bryson City (Doghouse)
by Lauren Bussard

Um, the first track is crickets… and a typewriter… and more crickets. But for the rest of the album – their second full-length for Doghouse – Sunday Driver delivers a skillful and eclectic mix of soft, string orchestration and crushing guitar rock. The vocals are low and gruff enough on most of the songs to liken them to a pretty good metal band, but with the softness of the strings, Sunday Driver adds another dimension – they seem to be doing what metal bands do but with obvious sentiment.

They define themselves as a mix of punk, emo, and hardcore, which seems pretty right on, but they manage to mix the genres so expertly that most of the songs defy categorization. “Saboteur” rocks harder than Def Leppard ever did, the violins in “Faking” make it one of the most beautiful songs I’ve ever heard, and “Wrong Things” almost made me cry – which is impressive since harsh guitars are not generally known for their emotional ability.
(PO Box 8946 Toledo, OH 43623)