File Under: Emo rating: C- tracks 1. When Losing Ends 2. Fiction Arms 3. From Your Lips 4. A Way To The Heart 5. New Room 6. Desire related links Noise Ratchet The Militia Group

Noise Ratchet’s Self-Titled EP does a good job of showcasing what the band has to offer in a mere six tracks. This EP runs the gamut of different directions that pretty much any band can go while trying to break into the new mainstream pop-punk-emo-’core-metal scene. Noise Ratchet either has all their bases covered and has no qualms about hiding it or they feel that they can play a bit of anything, and perhaps have that be their niche market. Whatever Noise Ratchet is trying to do, they do it to their best of their ability on this EP, but it still falls just one step below par, keeping it from being a quality album.

Here’s the basic problem, tracks one through three ("When Losing Ends," "Fiction Arms," and "From Your Lips") pretty much all blend together with about the same sound, and without and real kind of differential between their sound, or vocal changes. "When Losing Ends" is the title of the first track, but I lost interest way before that track came to a close. The beginning of this album just doesn’t really go anywhere, at least until Noise Ratchet changes up the style a little bit on track four "A Way to the Heart." This track slows things down, and lighten things up, unfortunately a bit too much, putting the listener to sleep. The track rounds out with the almost eight minute "Desire." I think this is the band’s attempt to be like the Juliana Theory, and elongate their tracks with extremely long guitar riffs, just to annoy the hell out of the listener.

There is a bit too much diversity on this album, and unfortunately, not enough quality. Noise Ratchet stretches themselves a bit thin trying to cover all the bases here, and not perfecting their own style. The thing about this EP is that, if you wanted to you could go find bands that play each style of each track, about ten times better. This EP just doesn’t pack the punch that it should in order to get listeners to turn towards this band. Maybe the next time around, Noise Ratchet will choose a style and stick with it enough to perfect it.

Jason Cipriano is the Senior Editor. Contact him at jasonc@rockzone.com.