What you actually get when you take Conspiracies for a spin is a bit of a mess. You can see the post-hardcore influence because vocalist Josh McKeown growls occasionally rather than singing, or maybe that's the screamo part. Anyway, the band are evidently competent musicians, in particular Chris Velissarides whose drumming throughout is nothing short of stunning. The problem is that the Open The Skies are trying to span so many genres that they never spend enough time focusing on what makes a great song or a great band.

It ticks so many boxes that it's like a musical version of the Oxford Capacity Analysis. There are bits of hardcore in there, and old school metal gets a look in. There's an acoustic track in the shape of Yours Faithfully, but by far our favourite influence comes via the lyrics of A Silent Decade ("I want to stay with you until daybreak, I want to stay with you until I wake") which suggests that at least one of the band has a Westlife CD in their collection somewhere.

The problem Open The Skies are facing is that they are treading water rather than pushing things forward. Smart musicianship is one thing, using it is quite another. Quite why bands insist on having vocals that sound like their singers are drowning in their own phlegm is a mystery. It's getting really tired. When it first appeared on the grindcore scene with Napalm Death and later Obituary it was new and pretty fucking shocking. Now it has got to the point where bands use it because they think they have to, and it has been taken to the point of parody.

McKeown's got a pretty decent voice at times, when he's singing, but when he half sings a line then gargles the last word, he sounds completely impotent. The juxtaposition of the vocals and their content is totally jarring and out of context. It just doesn't work. It's like telling your girlfriend you love her, gobbing in her face. Unless she likes that sort of thing of course. Ask her. Don't try it to find out, you'll end up in a lot of trouble.

Conspiracies could have been a good album, and with such obvious talent Open The Skies should be capable of so much more. This is a missed opportunity, as yet another band tries to elbow its way into an already crowded and uninspired genre.

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