Planes Mistaken for Stars, the emo-core quartet with one of the coolest band names going return to CD trays with a second all-too-short EP.
Knife in the Marathon weighs in at an always-leave-them-wanting-more 18 minutes, but its unrelenting, powerful pace and vigour makes it a worthwhile to the Deep Elm Records library.
After a slow, moody crescendo, the punchy, guttural background shouts worthy of a Grade album fill the air with anger while the raspy foreground melodies struggle to avoid succumbing to the darkness of the world.
Gone are the quiet, slow moments of PMFS’s first self-titled EP. More desperate, the tempos never sink into the spacey, depressed lulls of a song like "Copper and Stars"–Knife in the Marathon shows greater resolve against the tyranny of existence. Nowhere is the lament of the 1999 release that "winter killed the best of me." This time, in this new year, if any part of the singer dies it will be on his own terms.
The only respite from the more hardcore, less emo, more loud, less quiet, format is the mournful "Anthem" which extensively quotes Arthur Rimbaud’s poem "A Season in Hell."
In stark contrast, however, is the hidden track: a uncontrollable, rage-filled cover of Unbroken’s "Fall on Proverb" that stands as a perfectly suitable finale to Planes Mistaken For Star’s emotionally-charged EP.
Now if only they would release a full album.