Last year, NorCal punk rock band Monster Treasure showed up on the scene with their self-titled album that was released on Leisure & District. Earlier this month, the band released their follow-up album, II.
The first half of the album is a fast-paced journey through fuzzy feedback and indie punk-rock. The vocalists do a good job of balancing each other out in nice melodies that juxtapose with the rest of the heavily-distorted tracks.
It really isn’t until the middle of the album that the band starts to shine. Tracks like “Buttercream” and “Candy Sun” use a nice balance of feedback and fuzzy guitars that show a diverse range of sound from the rest of the album. The sixth track, “Leave,” comes on strong with fast drumming and good feedback on the guitars. The vocals are clean and understandable and balanced nicely with the rest of the music.
When the album reaches the eighth track, “The Fall,” is when we really help to see what this band is all about. The track uses fun, fuzzy, distorted guitars for a nice intro hook. At about the two minute mark, the steady drums under the feedback are replaced with a faster, pulsing drum. Strong vocals come in after, although they can be a little hard to hear due to the feedback.
The energy is lost in the last two tracks, “So What” and “Come Over.” Nothing about either track really stands out, except that they feel almost underproduced compared to the rest of the album. In “Come Over,” the vocals are hard to hear over the distorted guitars.
Overall, the album wasn’t bad. Most of the album feels like a hybrid between Nirvana and Silversun Pickups, which is a good combination, but there’s nothing about the album that really stands out to me. I’ll definitely be interested in seeing where Monster Treasure goes from here.
