Music Reviews: Display Case - "Make Your Mark"

It's nice to see the younger generation actually putting down the plastic Rock Band "instruments" and picking up REAL instruments! You know the ones made of wood, strings and metal? Yeah, THOSE instruments! Well the band Display Case is a young group of musicians who really hit the mark with their debut album "Make Your Mark".

The songs on this album are heavy on riffs and crunch showing a lot of promise for these up and comers. "Such Friends" shows that with enough attention to detail you can take a simple song and make it special. Not that these songs are simple. Not by a long shot. These guys are wise musicians beyond their years. And their sound is a cross between late 90's alternative and modern metal inspired punk...if that makes sense. With high pitched guitar squeals and a great backbeat, I think these guys nail down these songs in a way any other band their age would fail to do. I like what they're doing here. But I can also see the band mature with time and really make a truly great record in the coming years.

"Skid" is a crazed pit starting tune with more of those meaty rocking licks and a heavy beat worth dropping elbows and knuckles to. The band, Jordan Essy (vocals), Joe Wellman (guitar) Dylan Medina (bass) and Joe Heirigs (drums) show that they have spent many hours in their bedrooms playing their instruments and writing songs. And it really shows. This isn't some 4 chord garage punk band. This is a group with talent!

The guys slow things down with "Save The Man", the closets thing you'll get to a ballad from Display Case. It's a nice tune with an army style drum roll, mellow guitar chords and sincere lyrics about being one of the less fortunate in the world. It's a really great song. And this type of tune wasn't what I was expecting coming into this record. So, it's a nice change of pace from the fast rocking band you hear early on in this album.

I think Display Case are onto something here with a nice balance of heavy and fast, and mellow and honest. It shows the versatility in the bands playing and songwriting ability. And I can't stress this enough, they may be young, but they KNOW what they want. They have a vision of the kind of band they wanna be. And I can really see them flourish with time. But for now this is a great start for a band with a very bright future.

4 / 5 stars