Unsung - EP

Album Review

Chariot follow up the significant right hook of their 2004 debut with this rabbit punch of an EP, re-recording four songs from Everything Is Alive, Everything Is Breathing, Nothing Is Dead, and Nothing Is Bleeding, adding two new songs, and throwing in some concert footage. Brand-new opener "Yanni Depp" is fantastic, with Chariot's guitars wrenching out notes over a rhythm section that seems ever on the verge of imploding. This lurching, raging sound definitely makes Chariot's metalcore stamp more recognizable, but it also showcases vocalist Josh Scogin (ex-Norma Jean), who always finds a way to make the emotion in his shout tangible. "Blessed we come and blessed we go," he seethes on "Depp." "But this world is full of white teeth and black lungs." "Goodnight My Lady and a Forever Farewell" is renamed "Vin Affleck" on Unsung, but it still rages, and "Kenny Gibler (Play the Piano Like a Disease)" — the other new track — is another EP highlight. This is a tide-over release, something to tie in with Chariot's continued touring. But it continues to prove that Scogin's new band is as formidable as his old one.