Metal Underground.com

Sonic Syndicate has been touring recently with both Nightwish in the U.S. and In Flames in Europe, and has been gaining some press and pub for their efforts. They have come out with the “Rebellion EP” partly to bridge the gap to their next full length, due in Spring of 2010, and partly to introduce new singer Nathan J. Biggs.

The EP starts off with “Burn This City,” which is a radio-ready piece of metalcore dreck. It is straight average, with alternating clean and dirty vocals, melodic and thrash-based parts, and a soft breakdown. “Rebellion in Nightmareland” is a step up, as the band multi-tracks the vocals, and new vocalist Biggs extends himself farther toward death metal territory while keeping his clean vocal counterpoint. The song itself also features more varied musical textures and songwriting, and is a pretty well done piece. The third track, the radio edit for “Burn This City” seems to be exactly the same as the first iteration of the song.

Sonic Syndicate has released some decent albums already and has some momentum going into their next album launch. While this EP doesn’t do much to fan the flames higher, it doesn’t douse them either.