Band: Philmont
Album: Oh Snap EP
Label: Forefront
Release Date: 4/21/09
Reviewer: Tyler Hess
Track Listing:
1. I Can’t Stand To Fall
2. The Difference
3. Another Name
4. My Hippocratic Oath
5. Photosynthetic
6. The Ascension
I don’t know what it is about this band, but its like everything I want to think about them is ignored by my brain about halfway through the first song. Just barely. Though their punk pop style is a little too predictable, in the way of bands like Stellar Kart, Eleventyseven and the typical comparisons to Relient K (who have probably influenced a few too many Christian pop punk bands that can’t compare with them in reality). This EP originally came out last year in mp3 form only, but now the band will have a hard copy available with an additional song added on the end to help generate continuous hype for their full length to come up next.
The tracks on the EP show the band to be a bit anthemic, stuff that could easily get a crowd of teenage girls boppin’ their heads at every cute little beat and would probably work great for a youtube video that someone might make for their A/V class presentation in high school. I really think that that they are trying to reach a younger crowd with their music, but its still enjoyable enough for someone a bit older, though relating to the material tends to be more of the “oh, I remember what that was like back in the day” kind of a thing.
Thematically, the band really gravitates to showing the need for God in our lives, like in “I Can’t Stand To Fall”, a song about getting things out of the way of being with Him, or “My Hippocratic Oath”, an allegorical song of a heart patience not accepting the operation they need, despite the obvious evidence of its necessity. “Another Name” and “The Ascension” (the new song) are both more along the acoustic slow down type of song that show that they do have a little bit of range. “Photosynthetic” is a song that attacks the snapshot life of social networking and lives that hide behind oh so easy masquerade that we can get behind.
Overall: Give Philmont some time, they’ll probably come up with something pretty good in a couple years.As for right now, they are proceeding with some serviceable and fun pop punk, but some maturing would be a good thing.
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