4 out of 5

Label: The Ghost Is Clear Records

Produced by: Justin Mantooth (recorded by, mixed by)

The conversion to Canada Songs-era Daughters nears completion… But – these Two Songs are also MEO44 carving out a much more exciting identity than just Mormon jokesters who play thrash music.

Jarom Johnson has carved out a great vocal delivery, using the kind of manic vocal styling of Alexis S.F. Marshall but shaped to his own rise-and-fall shout, while the band shifts their immense grind chops towards more limber, mathy chord progressions. This stuff is still heavy as hell, but the fact that both tracks tic above 2:00 should indicate a slight change in approach. Lyrically, the Mormon shtick is mostly gone, moreso for tales of down-home living; a youth embrace of vague imagery kind of plagues the words, though, preventing there from being much inherent meaning. Wearing a Car feels like the show-off track – see how fast and hard we still play – with backup I Wrote American Sniper When I Was Ten Years Old more interesting overall, offering up an identity beyond the Daughters nods and bluster.

Really cool seeing the band grow beyond their shtick identity, and definitely a lot of promise if they continue in this direction.