Ah, The Daredevil Christopher Wright. We’re all in agreement that they’re pretty good, right? Right. If you haven’t heard them, take my word for it.

Well, I loved “In Deference to a Broken Back,” but that came out forever ago. Or in pre-Twitter speak, two years ago. As luck would have it, they have something new now.

Naturally I was very excited when I learned that “The Longsuffering Song EP” had come out. Maybe not Packers-Super-Bowl-Champs-excited, but still, a smile may have appeared on my face. I dunno. I wasn’t looking at my face-parts at the time.

So I headed on over to Daredevil’s Bandcamp page to give it some listenin’ and some purchasin,’ and let me say that I like it a lot. Maybe not as much as their album, “In Deference to A Broken Back,” but it still is quite good.

It’s calmer than their first. I mean, obviously that’s not to say that they sounded like Mastodon on their LP, but it was a bit more quickly paced than this. It works just as well though. All of the songs flow nicely together, which doesn’t happen in most EPs I’ve heard. It usually just seems like a bunch of songs thrown together in between a band’s albums.

What’s incredible to me is that I have already listened to this EP roughly 9.3 times despite having heard most of this before.

According to Spectator Research (go with it), only one of the songs has not been performed live. Though “Darkness, Darkness” is quite different live, but I actually like it better here though, with its piano and xylophone.

The new one is called “A Man of Significance” which is not to be confused with “A Man of The Arts.” Well, it confused me, initially, at least.

“Significance” does not have lyrics in the traditional sense rather it has onomatopoeia. “La-da-da-daaas” populate the beginning. There is also some chanting in the middle that is reminiscent of something Gregorian, though maybe not as deep. It’s beautiful stuff.

However, I do have two disappointments with this EP.

The first of which is to say that it is an EP and not an LP. I wanted it to be an LP because I am very selfish and have no concept of what goes into making an album. What a jerk I am, right!?

Secondly, I end up only listening to “The Animal of Choice” and I forget to listen to the rest because “Animal” is so good. They have been performing it live for a long time (Spectator Research) and it has always been my favorite. Seriously, my liking of this song is probably unhealthy.

There are several sections to this six-minute-plus song and not one sounds disjointed or out of place. Everything from the bossa-nova beginning until it closes with a chorus of nothing but “aaaahs.”

The song deals with aggression, misunderstanding, and animals! Oh my! You don’t hear a lot of animal metaphors these days, but if it’s like this, it should happen more often.

Seriously guys, if these are my only two disappointments, I must have liked it. That, or I have no idea what
disappointment means.

The rest of the EP is very pleasant too. Now, don’t jump down my throat. I mean that in the most endearing way possible. Yes, if I called Megadeth a pleasant band, that would be an insult, but it’s a compliment for Daredevil.

There are no superfluous sounds; each moment has purpose. Does it really take any chances? No, not really. Is it challenging? Probably not, but that doesn’t make this bad. It’s just a really solid
group of songs.