 "Photo:")
Driver Side Impact may be the best thing to come out of Cleveland in a while. Yes, that includes you too, Drew Carey.
The quintet has been working hard for the past three years, and it's finally starting to pay off. With an air of Hawthorne Heights and Boys Like Girls, Driver Side Impact fits the perfect mold of a great emo pop-punk band.
In a time where emo is the "in" thing in rock music, it's nice to see some innovation in the genre. This is one of the first emo bands I've heard in a long time to employ innovative guitar sounds.
Guitarists Jack and Mark pull off sweet, minimal and not overly dramatic guitar lines. The ambient noise of "The Heist" and "We Are Your Own" is a prime example of this.
The band has become one of the most popular punk bands on the Internet thanks to Web sites such as Purevolume.com and Myspace.com. Some would call this hype, but I call it talent.
It's very easy to see why so many have gotten into this band. An innovative dichotomy is created by this band with laid back melodies and entrancing vocals and heavy guitars.
The standout song from this band is "Walk On Water." It's a lot heavier than the band's other songs, but it's one of those songs that could easily be a punk rock anthem. It's got amazing vocals and lyrics from frontman Branden as well distorted yet tasteful power chord guitar lines.
The band is signed to the highly popular independent label Victory Records. That should speak a lot about what the industry thinks about this band. The same label that Hawthorne Heights and Atreyu came from obviously knows how to produce great rock bands. Driver Side Impact is no exception.
Emo has become a current fad, but I have a good feeling that this band will rise above the label of just being an emo band. They have already proved they are true musicians with songs that are each unique in their own right.
Each song the band has put out sounds like it has a different band playing, which shows how versatile Driver Side Impact is.
Why bands like the Jonas Brothers are tearing up the Top 40 charts and not bands like this is beyond me. Overly produced and packaged bands will come and go, but true artistic talent like Driver Side Impact should always be recognized.
To find out more about Driver Side Impact and to listen to some tracks, check out: Myspace.com/driversideimpact and Purevolume.com/driversideimpact.
Be the first to comment on this article!