October 15, 2010 • self-released
Here's another entry in the long list of "heavy post-rock" bands; while I've mostly gotten bored of this sort of thing long ago, Arroyo in particular have a bit more of a screamo edge to them, which is a nice break from all the generic sludge bands that do similar things. But this album still doesn't really do a whole lot for me. While the band has potential, Arroyo is a chore to listen to.
The band's sound is not bad, certainly; the guitar tones are nice and the playing is decent. They are good at putting on the "pretty" atmosphere that comes with modern post-rock, and fuse it with the screamo side well. There are lots of good drumming moments as well. Nothing worth writing home about, but it's nice.
But their songwriting is pretty flat. Most of the time is spent entrenched in long buildups and bridges between long, repetitive sections that don't ever come to a very satisfying ending, to the point where I just want to yell "get on with it already!". The longest song is the worst offender—the opening half seems to drag on for ages, and by the time the band actually gets going I'm not interested anymore. Granted, it's not a problem that permeates the whole album—the second-longest track does a much better job at being interesting—but it's almost too little, too late.
I'm not sure what happened—on their debut EP Individuum & Massen they pulled off two really long songs fine. (At least, I remember thinking they were decent.) Maybe I'm craving something different, or maybe my attention span isn't what it used to be; but Arroyo is still just a little too tiresome to recommend.
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