Emery
I'm Only A Man

THE REVIEW

After exploring the end of the weak in their debut album ("The Weak's End") and then posing an affirmative question with their follow-up "The Question," the Emery now present an explicit reference to the transience of being human, with all the implications and consequences that come with it.

Are the guys trying to make us understand, using not-so-sophisticated metaphors, that we should consider them with all their shortcomings, flaws, limits, and their vulnerability? Perhaps, if this were applied to daily life, in relation to the divine and the like, one might overlook it, but the tragedy, for Emery, is that what has just been stated finds a terrifying correspondence in the music they compose and submit to us. Because what is weak, lacking in creative depth, limited and not worthy of facing listeners with a clear conscience is precisely the sound they present in "I'm Only A Man." They could barely be considered as artisans duplicating others' ideas, but now they've tried to challenge themselves and find themselves broken.

Their choice to offer catchy songs to appeal to a broader audience (certainly not the European one) and perhaps break into the alternative and other charts proves to be a losing approach on every front. Pop hard rock banality with sporadic electronic inserts, a bit of acoustic guitars, some breezes of old-school screamo, emo, and metalcore just to show they can still dress up that way, a couple of nods to New Order, and on they go towards a distressingly sugary mediocrity.

I see no opportunity for recovery.