TILL WE DIE – Pressing On

Pressing On is the debut album from a Massachusetts based four-piece band that was formed back in 2004. The members of the band are Mitty (vocals), Joe DeMarco (guitar), Mike LaRoche (bass), and Dave Stewart (drums). Since the band is new to the music scene, there isn’t that much that can be said about them yet. Word of mouth has it that the band draws crowds comparable to that of Godsmack in its early days (10 years before they were signed) when they play the local circuit.

The band has a sound that touches upon the explorative side of Tool’s Progressive nature. Adding melodic Rock to the mix, and you have the possibility of some good music. Till We Die has built its reputation on their live performances. They have opened for some renowned acts such as RA, Lacuna Coil, Staind, Shadows Fall, Sevendust, Drowning Pool, and Powerman 5000, among others. They were also on the bill to support a 40-date Jägermeister tour in October 2005 and played with Scum Of The Earth.

The new CD has thirteen tracks with almost 53 minutes of music. It’s interesting that ten of the thirteen songs have one word titles. These guys don’t waste a lot of time thinking of clever titles for their songs, it seems.

“Ride” is the opener. It pretty much is boring for an opener — especially on a debut CD where you are trying to get listeners pumped for what is to follow. The guitars have a nice sound to them. There is something about Mitty’s voice that just doesn’t do it.

“Slave” has flashes of System Of A Down to it. When Mitty is singing the song sounds okay. As soon as he starts to scream his lyrics, it seems to go to hell. “Low” could be a better song than it is. When Mitty tries to elongate the words he is singing, it sounds monotone and quite bad, to be honest. Again, the guitar work is decent along with the drumming and bass work.

“Do It Again” sounds mundane because of the way Mitty attacks the song. He would be better off trying to find a unique style for himself instead of trying to copy other styles out there already. Otherwise, the tune isn’t that bad and in this case the screaming helps the song. These first four songs were flops, basically, for an anticipated debut release.

“Skitzo” is the first decent song on the CD from start to finish. “Lies” has a nice guitar intro. The one problem with the song is that Mitty can’t make up his mind if he wants to speak the lyrics or sing them. He is caught somewhere in the middle. “Ups” is the second good song. The singing, however, brings it down a notch or two. “That Day” is the third good song. From the direction the song takes, it can be attributed to having Tool’s influence, even if in a very subtle way. The vocals are even on the money this time around.

“Selfish” is a somewhat angry song. The guitars have a very nice sound to them throughout the entire song. This might be the best song on the entire CD. It’s definitely the best song up to this point.

“Pressing On” is the title track from the CD. Musically, the song is decent in its own right. It might be the heaviest song so far. Too bad the vocals aren’t one of the finer points once again. “Defined” comes out of the gates with Tool written all over it. Mitty tries to do his best Maynard imitation, at times, but doesn’t come close. The guitar, bass, and drums work nicely together on this one. Once again the screaming ruins what otherwise could have been a pretty decent tune.

“Ting” opens with this little bass intro that is straight from Justin Chancellor’s book of tricks. It even has a nice little sound effect, something else Tool is quite famous for. The tune has a catchy little riff going on throughout, with moments where they shift gears and speed things up. An interesting touch that works well.

“Apology” is the last track on the CD. It has a nice riff going until an acoustic guitar starts to play. The vocals are awful on this track. Mitty is trying to sing with a nice harmony but instead sounds out of key. Otherwise, this is a very nice and slower tune compared to the rest.

Maybe the band is much better LIVE than the material they were able to put on their new release. One observation is that musically the band is pretty decent and will probably get better with time. However, vocally the singer just doesn’t work well with the rest of the band. Buy this CD at your own risk.