The.Maple.Room is a rather fresh Belgian band that is around since 2003, but I assume some of these guys played all of our nation's youthclubs before with their former bands Easy Way Out, Full Court Press, Area51, Blame and more. With all due respect, but it was quite obvious that none of these bands were really destined to make it any further than our regional clubs. I'm only guessing, but I assume that these guys met eachother at least once a month since our country is so little, so maybe the logical next step would be that the best elements in all of these bands put their heads together to try and create something that could possibly take them one step further. And you know, maybe that's just what this band could be capable of.

Basically, there's one band that needs to be mentioned here, and that is From Autumn To Ashes. I know it's not nice for a band to be labelled a copy of a pretty popular other band, but that's just what The.Maple.Room is, and I think there's not that much wrong with it, as long as the copied material sounds good. Don't they all do it?

For those unfamiliar with FATA, let me tell you that they play double-bass moshing metalcore mixed with more melodic emotional parts with one guy singing pretty clean parts and another one screaming his guts out with a deep growling voice. All this comes in a pretty dark grabbing package that nonetheless sounds quite accessible for anyone that loves hard yet heartfelt music. Personally, I'm not all for the growling aspect in this music, but I have to admit that this might be an unmissable catalyst for this cataclysmic music. Maybe The Maple Room shows slightly more traces of the melodic catchy punkrock in the easier parts (which I applaud), and maybe the growling sounds more ferocious than FATA's, but the overall feel I get is quite similar. Add a portion of riffing and sliding guitar-licks and a bit more moshing agressiveness and you end up with the sound of this band.

What I thought was really impressive were the lyrics. I never expected anyone with a Dutch mothertongue to write a sentence like "Can the day stand one more night and leave us all behind with nothing more than nothing to believe in", or "Light will shine no more. As I count the steps on the staircase of my defeat". OK, it all sounds a bit too depressing for me, but this guy really knows his english vocabulary better than I do. Also very well-pleasing was the very professional sounding recording-quality, one of these things that was lacking in so many of Belgian bands' albums in the past. I think we've done a lot of catching up in the last couple years in that department. This one can stand the test with any other release out there. Even the more moody parts like in "My Last Suicide" (where they throw in a string arrangement) sound pretty impressive.

Unfortunately this is not my favorite genre, but at least I prefer this one above FATA's latest release, because they managed to lay down a more melodic foundation in their music and keep more drive in their music. A very fine debut from these guys from "my suburbs". I suggest you check them out on purevolume where you can listen to the first song from this album.