Reviewed by Simon Eden

The prize for most excessive yet appropriate use of a double kick drum peddle goes to A Is For Automatic Weapons. AIFAW, as they are also known, comprise Will on drums, Jay on bass, Ben and Jack on guitars and Bez doing the main vocals. Playing what they describe as screamo metal, they are clearly heavily influenced by US metal bands such as The Devil Wears Prada, despite surprisingly hailing from Norwich in England. This is a five-track EP comprising "Slay The Dragon", "Bad Decisions", "More Blood In Training" and "Talk To Me", with the first track being the 44 second long "Intro". For an unsigned band, this EP is professionally recorded and produced, with some awesome drumming maintaining a powerful vibrancy to each track. The guitar work is well balanced between soft and raucous whilst matching the melodic soft rock vocals with the mono-toned unintelligible growls and screaming. Thankfully some of the lyrics are translated on the MySpace website, where they also claim to offer a (sexual) support line. If you listen to this at a volume for which it is suited, then it is going to hurt your ears. Although not a Christian ministry band, such lyrics do slip in such as "My God is real, I have seen him." This maybe balanced by Jack's MySpace tag line of "If you believe in a divine deity, you're delusional." All a bit strange.

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