Futuristic album with quiet lyrics

Snapcase, leader of the underground hardcore scene since the early '90s, attempts to reshape its thrash-core sound on its new album, End Transmission. It screams "concept album," almost literally, as front man Daryl Tabreksi's angry and foreboding lyrics guide you through the tale of a middle-class revolt in a controlling, oppressive society set 69 years in the future. \nIt's not an uncommon theme. Radiohead warned of us the ills of a technologically-controlled society in OK Computer, as did Fear Factory in žbsolete. Imagine these two albums conceived a secret love child and named it End Transmission.\nIt at first appears that Snapcase isn't going to let you down as they charge head-first into the opening track, "Coagulate," a hard, fast-paced song containing the type of guitar riffs and drum beats you would come to expect from Snapcase. Tabreski's somewhat inaudible lyrics add for good backup noise as the instruments play a larger role in the song. The band has plenty of intelligent things to say. It just needs to turn the volume down and stop yelling.\nSongs like "Believe, Revolt" and "First Word" further solidify the notion that the musicians are sticking to their straight-up formula of well-developed, rock-hard guitar and drum sections.\nSomething happens as End Transmission progresses that might shock the veteran Snapcase fan. Eerie grand-stand piano pieces appear in the form of "Cadence" and "A Synthesis of Classic Forms," and they're not half bad. It depends on whether you're willing to accept the new sound as legit Snapcase or scoff at it by labeling it too artsy. \nAs "Synthesis" unwinds into an ambient abyss, End Transmission seems to have taken a chill pill. Not so. The next song, "Aperture," leaps out from behind the spatial sound and scares the hell out of you with an amplified opening-riff. \nI have to hand it to Snapcase for developing its new sound into something more than a two-minute, head-bang anthem. End Transmission has the potential to be Snapcase's stepping-stone album into a new realm of creativity and style for the hardcore genre.