THE HURT PROCESS “Drive By Monologue”
Do you ever get the feeling from record labels that certain releases come off as derivatives of other releases from the same label? During Fat Wreck’s early years, you had NOFX and LAGWAGON dominating, and it wouldn’t be inappropriate to suggest that somehow out of those two, the label begot STRUNG OUT. A few years back, Drive-Thru was ruled by NEW FOUND GLORY and MIDTOWN, and out of that spawned THE STARTING LINE. So it is with little hesitation that I consider THE HURT PROCESS to be the ‘tweener on Victory Records, caught in the arms of SILVERSTEIN and ATREYU. I also think they sound like BON JOVI run through an emocore easy-bake oven, but that’s probably just me. THE HURT PROCESS hail from the UK and fashion themselves with six members. Using that extra dosage of human strength, these guys pack quite a punch when they transition from their softer moments into typical emocore breakdowns. Clean vocals mostly steal the spotlight on this disc, and that’s a nice change from such usually being the other way around, but the band’s aggressive screaming is still fairly seamless and hardly a distraction. It’s difficult to pinpoint what exactly it is that THE HURT PROCESS are doing that gives their ten songs more credibility than FINCH’s lengthy roster of clones, but there’s definitely a thorough streak of talent and professionalism that shines through the melodies on “Drive By Monologue.” Minus, the “I sing a word, you then scream the same word back,” dual vocal dynamics of the seventh tune, “Last Goodbye,” there isn’t much at all to complain about, and after repeated listens, a bunch of these tracks become almost obsessively familiar. “Drive By Monologue” isn’t a particularly thrilling release, nor does it carry enough personality to become much of a long-term favorite, but it does pander often enough to a certain sweet spot that I have for chunky guitars and soaring melodic vocals, and thus, I see no need to find further faults where none may necessarily exist. 
Victory/Golf
