With their long awaited follow up to 2010’s Mercy (Good Fight Music), Earth (Magic Bullet Records) puts Sweet Cobra back in the spotlight and in front of me for the first time. The internet told me they were “post-hardcore.” What does that mean? I don’t speak English so I have no idea, let’s find out!

‘Future Ghosts’ wound up catching my attention more than the opening track, ‘Far Too Temp.’ This song is more consistently upbeat and easy to start headbanging and stomping around to. It’s there to grab you and make you listen and move. I anticipate this track being included in their set list specifically for this purpose.

‘Complaints’ is on the shorter side and reminds me of 80’s pop/rock songs with its keyboards. Even Botchy Vasquez’s voice sounds like a slightly rougher, more masculine Robert Smith in this piece. Maybe this is what The Cure would sound like if they were a touch heavier. Compared to the rest of the album, it’s a bit odd which makes it stand out and is exactly why I enjoy it.

The opening drums for ‘Jealous of Drugs’ remind me of a far less intense version of Mastodon’s ‘Crystal Skull’. This track starts off slow and starts to pick up a bit about two minutes in where it turns into some catchy rock and roll. While it never comes close to reaching the heaviness referenced previously, there is still something beautiful about it.

Earth is a fun album overall although I would have liked it to be a bit more cohesive. Things are kind of all over the place in the sense that you could pick out almost any track and have it stand on its own. That says a lot about the quality of the music, however, I always look for some kind of flow as an album plays, save for the intro to nearly every song being very similar, and that didn’t seem as strong as it could have been in this release.

7/10

ALEIDA LA LLAVE