By Robin Ianson
When a band decides to name itself Hurt after how their music sounds, it would seem like a safe bet to assume they are just another whiny emo band. Although the album features plenty of emo lyrics, calling Hurt emo is about as accurate as labeling Geroge Dubya MENSA material.
Hurt is a band that doesn’t know what it wants to be. Every song on Vol. 1 is a pastiche of different genres and styles, making it impossible to define what Hurt actually sounds like. One moment a song can sound like it was ripped straight from the grunge years only to be backed by an orchestral string section the next. Every member of Hurt handles the transitions with ease, making for a slick-sounding debut. Despite combining so many disparate genres, few songs on Vol. 1 stand out. Most are a collection of random styles mashed together with no rhyme or reason and come dangerously close to sounding like masturbatory “prog” epics.
With their incredible variety of musical styles Hurt is without a doubt one of the most interesting bands to debut in 2006. Unfortunately, that’s not enough to ignore that they come off as a confused band singing about why they hurt.