DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN
Ire Works
(Relapse)

ROSETTA
Wake/Lift
(Translation Loss)

OM
Pilgrimage
(Southern Lord)

SICK PORKY
Ancestral
(Zonda)

RED LIMO
Soulful Attack EP
(Self-Released)

AUTOMATIC 7
At Funeral Speed 

(Mental)

DON'T MESS WITH 
TEXAS
Los Dias de Junio

(Moonlee)

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This Croatian post-rock/experimental instrumental band has all the right feelings, the correct sentimentality, the tuneful tonality and the most expansive ingredients to be somewhat influential to heavy rockers bored with the over spilling metalness of it all or hardcore heads tired of getting the shit beat out of them in the pit. The problem is, they are a few years too late. And sound like too many other bands. And are way typical. And a little bit boring. And are way the fuck predictable. And if you know two post-rock bands, you’ll hear them here. And it’s at times too close to Muzak. And it’s way obsessed with repeating flagellated ideas, instead of taking stabs at their own sound. And, well, they have a stupid name too. Ok, maybe then, Don’t Mess With Texas don’t have all the right ingredients to be somewhat influential.

It’s a bit of a letdown, because it’s all kind of pretty. And these four Zagreb natives can play their instruments quite well. But they seem to have taken so many lessons from bands like Explosions in the Sky (are they becoming the most influential instrumental band of all time or what?) and seem to be merely tweaking the formula. Los Dias de Junio (Spanish for Days of June) is the kind of rock album you can play to your father. And maybe you can do the same with a say, Explosions in the Sky record, but for fucks’s sake why are these dudes so obsessed with being boring? I hate to sound so negative, but beyond the shallow beauty of Los Dias de Junio lies about one inch of fruit punch, and that’s about it. Not even enough stuff to get you tipsy.  The songs don’t move effortlessly, but forcibly move just a little bit. Nine suckers here, all well-executed but rather boring. Go for the real thing instead.