Ditchwater – Sees Me Through / 3 Songs / 2004 Self-Released / http://www.ditchwater.com / [email protected] / Reviewed 21 July 2004

Sounding a lot like Disturbed, Breaking Benjamin, and Earshot, Illinois’ Ditchwater is another band that really tackles the nu-rock barrier hard. The distortion on “Its Over”, while sounding otherworldly, can not pull the track out from the deep cesspool of bands that do exactly the same thing, the same style, the same James Hetfield-style of vocals, the same splashy drums. “Sees Me Through” is even a weaker output by this band, with a breakdown that just strikes the listener as extremely hollow. Nothing is innovative in terms of the guitar being wahhh-wahhed out, and the tempos that Mike (vocals) and Mark (guitars) just do not match. “Thankless” finishes out this three song single, and while marginally better than “Sees Me Through”, only has a bright spot to it with the utterly brutal, nineties-KISS style guitars laid down.

It is not that Ditchwater is a weak sounding band, it is just that they are not very innovative with these three cuts. Sure, I could be judging a band on a fraction of their setlist, but these are the only tracks I could get for review. “Its Over” is the most catchy of the three tracks, with Mike’s vocals taking an Aaron Lewis-like tone to them to mesh pretty fairly with the wide-open-spaces sound of the drums and the guitars. The only thing that Ditchwater has going for it are their musical influences, which are fairly audible throughout most of the tracks on this disc. Corrosion of Conformity just busts out more than once, as well as Motorhead, Guns N Roses, and the like.

Even if there are twenty or so bands that do virtually the same schtick in various parts of the country, there is some space to make a name for one’s band. Chicago’s Escape From Earth is an example of a band that does do a lot of music that is hard to distinguish from most of what is currently popular, but are solid enough musically to make tracks theirs and no other. Ditchwater, while having the spirit to go and send two copies of this disc to me for review, just have not found their musical footing as of when this CD came out. Perhaps now, in the middle of 2004, we can start to hear the beginnings of a distinct Ditchwater that could conceivably be the next Disturbed.

Top Track: Its Over

Rating: 4.0/10