Epic Season is a relatively unknown band from, it seems, New Hampshire, where they have been working for a year and a half on Till Darkness Falls to Dawn, the new record they just released. There are six people in the band, and judging by their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts, they are hardworking, honest folk, who play music because they love it, and whose collaborative venture is deeply personal and fulfilling for them. They seem like nice people. 
TDFtD is terrible, bland, and unoriginal. To the band’s credit, it is also extremely earnest: like I said, you can tell the band members really put their heart into what they’re doing. That said, I’m not sure if that makes it better or worse that the EP is unlistenable and derivative. At least if it was bad they could pretend it wasn’t a big deal.
Let me be more concrete. The musicianship on the album is competent and fluid, and although the band’s songs are shot through with horrible indie-rock cliches, their performance is solid and certainly lends some believability to the project. The record is produced and recorded extremely well, and does a lot to create a feeling of professionalism. I found the instrumentals straightforward and clear, with little to distract from the vocals, all of which were delivered convincingly – actually, the vocals of Hannah Wells, the one of the band’s three singers, are a high point of TDFtD.
On the other hand, the band’s lack of innovation or creativity is a serious turnoff. Several comments on their Facebook page suggest that perhaps they are a Christian band of sorts, and actually this makes sense: musical risks don’t go over well in a church. Adherence to the most generalized version of the indie rock formula seems to be the order of the day: some post-Taking-Back-Sunday crooning, some clinky guitars, a tamed disco drum beat or two, the occasional melancholy piano riff. The songs are indistinguishable from one another and they are all equally bland. Epic Season, if you are reading this, stop playing in churches, quit your jobs, start dropping acid every day, and THEN record another record.
Bars: 1 / 5
Epic Season – “Never Stop”
Epic Season – “Never Stop”
Epic Season – “Clouds”
Epic Season – “Clouds”
Epic Season – “Farewell the Rain”
Epic Season – “Farewell the Rain”
