Do you know what the music industry needs more of? Slightly bratty American emo-punk bands, that's what. Seriously, this genre of music is something that hasn't nearly been explored enough, and there aren't nearly enough fans of this genre, or bands churning out album after album of stuff that follows exactly the same formula.

What I really mean by the above paragraph, of course, is that I've just about had enough of listening to dime-a-dozen American punk bands who bill themselves as being "melodic", have strange haircuts, and possibly wear glasses that they may or may not need to see. Not that the genre is entirely without merit, there are some decent bands within it, such as Long Island band On The Might of Princes, and the genre has also spun off some interesting acts like The Mars Volta. But in general, 95% of the scene is crap, as opposed to other scenes, which are typically about 90% crap.

On "Get Saved", Pilot to Gunner unfortunately join that 95%, although they do go down swinging. There are some occasional decent ideas thrown in here amongst the generic screamy-emo racket, but for the most part, the high signal:noise ratio makes it a frustrating listening experience. It's not that the band is annoying to any significant degree, vocalist Scott Padden gives a toned-down, relaxed delivery that avoids overpowering the songs and turning the music into a caricature of angst. The actual instrumentation is decent as well, which rock enough to get your foot tapping. The problem is in the average nature of a lot of the music, this is a batch of typical turn-of-the-century New York punk that you can pick up from any of a dozen different bands.

There are still a few decent moments here, like in Dry Ice & Strobe Lights, which opens with a restrained guitar line, kicks into an unusual spoken-word part, before blasting its way into a satisfying riff-based rock explosion. Other annoyances like childish profanity are also thankfully absent.

"Get Saved" admirably achieves the goal of not falling into the traps that this sort of music usually gets into, but it forgets something very important. It forgets to come up with good moments, decent hooks, and interesting songs to fill the empty spaces left behind. If Pilot to Gunner can build upon the isolated good moments and ideas that they show here, then their next album might be more than an instantly forgettable slab of generi-emo.

Do you know what the music industry needs more of? Slightly bratty American emo-punk bands, that's what. Seriously, this genre of music is something that hasn't nearly been explored enough, and there aren't nearly enough fans of this genre, or bands churning out album after album of stuff that follows exactly the same formula.

What I really mean by the above paragraph, of course, is that I've just about had enough of listening to dime-a-dozen American punk bands who bill themselves as being "melodic", have strange haircuts, and possibly wear glasses that they may or may not need to see. Not that the genre is entirely without merit, there are some decent bands within it, such as Long Island band On The Might of Princes, and the genre has also spun off some interesting acts like The Mars Volta. But in general, 95% of the scene is crap, as opposed to other scenes, which are typically about 90% crap.

On "Get Saved", Pilot to Gunner unfortunately join that 95%, although they do go down swinging. There are some occasional decent ideas thrown in here amongst the generic screamy-emo racket, but for the most part, the high signal:noise ratio makes it a frustrating listening experience. It's not that the band is annoying to any significant degree, vocalist Scott Padden gives a toned-down, relaxed delivery that avoids overpowering the songs and turning the music into a caricature of angst. The actual instrumentation is decent as well, which rock enough to get your foot tapping. The problem is in the average nature of a lot of the music, this is a batch of typical turn-of-the-century New York punk that you can pick up from any of a dozen different bands.

There are still a few decent moments here, like in Dry Ice & Strobe Lights, which opens with a restrained guitar line, kicks into an unusual spoken-word part, before blasting its way into a satisfying riff-based rock explosion. Other annoyances like childish profanity are also thankfully absent.

"Get Saved" admirably achieves the goal of not falling into the traps that this sort of music usually gets into, but it forgets something very important. It forgets to come up with good moments, decent hooks, and interesting songs to fill the empty spaces left behind. If Pilot to Gunner can build upon the isolated good moments and ideas that they show here, then their next album might be more than an instantly forgettable slab of generi-emo.