Download- We only bleed for family

Self-produced
2008

I have heard some good bands coming out of the state of Virginia lately including the killer band Syndicate and the very impressive hard rock band Aces Wyld. So I had hopes for Download as well and I was even rooting for them to be impressive. Unfortunately that was not to be for the most part despite the fact that I gave this one several spins hoping something would pull me in. Initially several tracks had some tight, swirling thrash styled spurts yet these moment were all too brief. Almost every time the promise of some real metal gave way for some metalcore ramblings that swayed between mediocre and just plain dull. I tried to stand my ground and hang in there with this album hoping a light would shine through and those few moments of promise at the beginning of their songs would re-emerge. Yet that was not the case as my reward for my patience was unfortunately some rather bland songs that struggled to produce enough energy or creativity to keep their songs afloat. The biggest problem is repetition because they had me for maybe a minute or so of a number of songs, but they just don’t have enough variation to sustain the track for the entire run time. There were a few times where they hit some crunching pieces yet they don’t seem to know how to capitalize on these bits to build them into something more. I got the impression they spent far too much time coasting through the bulk of their songs instead of building off of the initial steam they had on several occasions. They have a lot of work to do if they want to get beyond being just another faceless bar band.

http://www.myspace.com/downloadva