Reviewed by Greg Sammons

Like almost every other band of this kind, this band from Derby don't want to be type-cast as emo. But guess what, there really is only one word to describe their style of music and that word is . emo! Straight and simple, this band is an emotional rock outfit taking influences from the two neighbouring genres of punk and screamo. The band does have the added bonus of dual vocals and keyboards to make things interesting. The dual-vocals skirt between the almost-talking style of Mewithoutyou and the shrieking/screamo style more akin with their contemporaries. All in all Blacktop manage to create a well polished sound that fits every emo stereotype but with one crucial difference - it's positive. Whilst mainstream emo is deeply introspective and negative, Blacktop remain positive - the main songwriters are Christian but a couple of the members are (currently!) not. Some solid touring off the back of this mini-album and the right breaks could allow this band to go very far but time is running out, emo's shelf life is only going to last so long. Very soon this band will have to reinvent their sound to remain contemporary enough to compete in the marketplace.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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