Having waited four years since their last LP, self-proclaimed “puke rock” four-piece My Ticket Home have ended their silence with ‘UnReal’. The Columbus, OH, based outift clearly love paying homage to their predecessors, with Linkin Park, Deftones and general 90’s alt-rock all noticeable influences. After starting out as a band channelling a nu-metal revival, they have since added heavy breakdowns, harsh screams and distorted guitars accompanied by raspy vocals to their repetoire. Consequently this grungy full-length may be a shock to fans expecting a carbon copy of previous releases.
Straight away the quartet show plenty of urgency, with ‘Thrush’ bringing wiry guitars, thick instrumentation and Nick Giumenti’s gruff vocals to kicks off the album as it means to go on. It’s clear as you delve into ‘unReal’ that My Ticket Home have moulded into an out and out alt-rock band. The use of crunching riffs and Giumenti’s soaring vocals throughout adds stylistic consistency to the record.
The effortlessly catchy and unpolished ‘Hyperreal’ is a perfect example of a band maturing and moulding themselves into something new. While the morose tone of ‘Joi’ allows the band to reign things in a little, before ‘Gasoline Kiss’ springs the album back to life.
The major high point is ethereal closer ‘Visual Snow’. The track lingers around reverbed drums and atmospheric vocals, with a delivery so hypnotic it instils that this change is here to stay and that it works.
My Ticket Home’s drastic musical development is commendable, having been chained to the same genre since 2008. Albeit unapologetic in their approach of paying homage to their influences on tracks like ‘We All Use and Down Life’, they are almost written to a nineties alt/grunge formula. This has produced a cohesive record that a new set of nostalgic fans may love, but for old fans, it may proove to be a risk that has just missed the mark.
3/5
‘UnReal’ by My Ticket Home is out now on Spinefarm Records.
My Ticket Home links: Facebook|Twitter|Bandcamp
Words by Selina Payandee (@nekdep)
