The EP opens up with “Rhino” and just like the hulking animal itself the idea is that it charges at you with its duel socio-political message of combating terrorism and the idea of lady justice; the government’s that live vicariously through her via means of war and conflict…an incredibly deep track that musically takes on a morose, grunge-fuelled post-rock tone channelling influences such as AFGHAN WHIGS. Mostly spoken word, but thankfully it does come to life for the chorus salvaging something at least from a listening perspective; it’s a decent start. “Alter Ego” follows up and it’s like a constant battle between warring split personalities, like Tymon is speaking of the allowed consumption of his one side by the other, almost singing to himself, but again, aside from an bold yet fuzzy, classic-rock guitar solo at the tracks climax it’s still just another slow, monotonous offering for the most part.
“Brotherhood” continues this approach with another sluggish, grunge-based, mostly spoken work piece, only offering slight melody with the brief chorus…slightly droning, even layering what sounds like whale-song inspired instrumentation within the latter half of the track, allowing for a somewhat shoegaze experience but it still feels and sounds lazy, before closing track “Shipwreck” takes you on a nihilistic journey through the zombified mind of a sailor going through the motions at sea…fed up of his Captain’s seemingly endless quest, the voyage at sea becoming bleak, the repetition pushing him to almost breaking point…the mantra of “we sink – we drown” the only thought seemingly keeping him going, veering off at the end like he secretly wishes to end his existence in the cold sea below. With the grunge elements still driving the music there’s also subtle prog influences here too and at points you can hear the bands appreciation of TOOL creeping through, giving us the EP’s only other notable point of interest really.
Mind you with that said it, doesn’t take away from the fact that, overall, the seventeen minutes of music that makes up this EP is arguably some of the dreariest you’ll likely hear all year…even instrumentally, aside from a few interesting guitar licks and ideas, it’s just a really lacklustre listen, both uneventful and unexciting. They may share a name with Sigmund Freud, historically possibly the world’s foremost leading name in neurology and psychoanalytic research, but even he would struggle to find motivation here, sadly this EP really is that boring. [3]