Artist: Trauma Album: Solidarity EP Label: Strike First Records Rating: 8 out of 10

As far as debuts go, Solidarity is hands down one of the best to come out of the hardcore scene in recent years. For a band this young, Southern California quintet Trauma proves to be an amazingly tight and innovate group throughout this EP's too-brief run of six excellent songs. Opener "Birds Have Wings and So Do Angels" sets the stage for what's to come. It builds slowly from alternating guitar crunches and clean-toned arpeggios only to explode into blisteringly fast and heavy verses. Then frontman Danny Ashbrook comes in, delivering half-screamed/ half-shouted vocals over the band's metallic storm that would make Snapcase's Daryl Taberski proud. Add in a tightly-constructed screamo-style hook and you've got a neat encapsulation of all of Trauma's strengths. They're the rare hardcore band that understand the importance of melody as a counterpoint to instrumental fury. Providing further evidence of this is "Scissors for Hands," which offers a subtly-melodic chorus that piles on stop-start guitars, strummy clean-tones and symphonic keyboards until the four-minute song reaches near-epic proportions. Elsewhere, "Eye Candy" lets the musicians prove they've got the chops to run with the big boys. Axemen Bob Wilson and Johnny Caldera trade off furious fretwork while drummer Jay Smith delivers a flurry of double-time drums, making for another standout track. While Trauma proudly display their metallic influences, Ashbrook's lyrics fall strictly in the more emotional emo camp, albeit with a lot of dark imagery to toughen things up appropriately. On the aforementioned "Candy," he offers a powerful metaphor. "You are like a drug," he screams. "You take away my pain and destroy me at the same time./ I'm addicted to your beauty./ And haunted by your demons." The influence of emo-metallers Autumn to Ashes is evident there, as well as on closer "Wake Up Before You Die," where alternately screamed/sung vox and a surging, punkish chorus immediately recall that group. At this point, Trauma's only real fault might be doing too many different styles well. They're a young band, though, and as they continue to synthesize their influences into one unique sound, they could very well become one of the biggest and most important bands in heavy music. Solidarity may be only the beginning, but some beginning it is. - Todd Thatcher