The Appleseed Cast
Peregrine
Miltia Group

The Appleseed Cast have undergone many changes in their style of music, that you just don’t know what to expect from their new album. Will it be “emo”? Will it be more of a droning post-rock sound? Will they still have great drums? Well, I don’t know what to tell you if you actually asked any of those questions, other than yes.

It’s a refreshing metamorphosis of earlier Cast works that is really quite catchy. When you hear the instrumental first track (is that becoming essential nowadays?) you’ll know what I’m talking about with the brooding post-rock. It sounds so big and full of noise that you won’t even realize, nor care for that matter, that it’s just the opening song. The second track comes back to the basis of previous Appleseed Cast recordings with its rock overtone and angst laden vocals, but “Here We Are (Family in the Hallways)”, really sold the album for me. Maybe it just came at the right time, but it made me do a double take at what I had been listening to. Usually music is nice in the background while you are doing other things, but for the rest of my first listen through, I had to stop everything and just listen.

This was strange because I’m not that big of an Appleseed Cast fan. I’ve never been to a show, never bought a t-shirt, I even cringe at the mention of their first album title (The End of the Ring Wars, how emo can it get?), but this album is worthy of appreciation. You can call it “atmospheric emo-core”, or you can just call it “rock”. Either way, Peregrine is an enjoyable listen.

Links
Appleseed Cast Myspace page