With weird and wonderful track titles such as Shout Out to All My Toasters and Is Robbing Your Friends Supposed To Be Tight, Slaves sophomore album Routine Breathing went well and truly beyond my expectations. While the track titles may scream light hearted humor, the tracks themselves provide a chilling and haunting affair.

This is a truly evocative and powerful album with intelligent lyrics such as “Talk of the devil and he will appear,” “At the hands of your work, you’ll get what you deserve.” “If you want it can be my fault. I can be your masochistic scape goat lover, I tore us apart.”and Craig’s Voice tying it all together.

The album stays true to the bands established sound, providing a balanced contrast of louder, edgy songs such as Drowning in My Addiction, with more acoustic yet still memorable tracks such as Winter Everywhere and One God. Not to mention the strong instrumental backdrops and guest appearances from Garret Rapp, Kyle Lucas and Spencer Chamberlain topping it all off.

The only possible downside that may be present with this album is that at times there is a blur between where Emarosa ends and Slaves begins. But that is to be expected and not necessary a bad thing, especially for previous fans of Emarosa.

Our Top Tracks: Drowning in My addiction, Burning Our Morals, Share the Sunshine Young Blood Pt.2, Winter Everywhere

For fans of: The Color Morale, Issues, Emarosa