By Caitlyn Givary

The Finale, an indie rock outfit from Buffalo, New York has a new demo. These few songs are the first heard from them, so you might wonder why anyone’s paying them any attention. Well, The Finale warrants the consideration with one familiar face – that of Every Time I Die vocalist Keith Buckley. The Finale is a comfortable contrast from the sound of ETID, and the sensitive departure to the softer sounds of indie seems to be a seamless transition.

The demo is comprised of six tracks, one of which is an acoustic version of another song on the sample. These allow for just a taste of the band’s style. Analogous in both tempo and dynamics, the Finale’s sound ranges only moderately, from loud and fast (as heard on the tracks “Call It a Night” and “Strange Things”) to slightly less loud and fast (“Dry Country” and “Line Up”). Although Buckley’s voice seems a bit too rough and perhaps even monotonous after a while, one impressive quality The Finale shares with Every Time I Die is its clever and catchy lyrics. Gems such as “but I lock my doors/ and I load my gun/ when I see love coming in” and “I wanna cancel the moon/ and spend my days sleeping in with you” are available in abundance. Even the lyrics wear thin after a while though, and morph into the expected mediocrity of a side project trying too hard with familiar figurative language like “I’m bending spoons to pass the time.” All in all, this honest effort is just the right combination of interesting and unimpressive to be the debut work of a band whose members spend the other half of their time shouting incoherently.