One Win Choice - Conveyor (Cover Artwork)
Staff Review

One Win Choice

Conveyor (2011)

Jump Start

One Win Choice started with some growing pains, as many bands do. Their first full-length, 2007's Never Suspend Disbelief was kind of a mediocre update on the No Trigger demo. But the followup 7", Define/Redefine showed promise, tweaking the formula a bit and coming out a little better in the process (despite one totally random moment of Anti-Flag similarities). This sophomore LP, Conveyor might very well be the band's first well-rounded and realized effort. Make no mistake–this isn't a devastatingly original release, but the band writes good, aggressive songs with dashes of creativity and frequent structural abandonment that couldn't often be found on past releases.

Conveyor is more intense than past efforts, going more of a screamy melodic punk route with plenty of hardcore and technical skatepunk influence. No Trigger is a distant comparison at best, now (a certain quaver in Dan Kolza's voice resembles Tom Rheault's, and that's about it). One Win Choice better resemble a version of Rise Against's Revolutions per Minute now, however much less melodic brilliance and precision they have and the chunkier, more caustic pacing and rhythms they incorporate. That includes everything from the dark, howled buildup of opener "Movements" and the comparatively poppy, bouncy chorus of "Who Threw Out the Itinerary?", to the routinely thick chugging on "Hands Over Hearts" and the ever-changing speeds of riffy closer "Release Me".

Hell, the band manages such a loose, gravelly flow at times that it expands beyond their genre confines. "Act Your Age" almost sounds like something Young Livers would do at times, while more a dissonant layer of atmospheric, distorted guitars is accompanied by a tense sound clip to build up the end of instrumental "A Convincing Argument Against".

It's cool to see a band taking their craft and honing it to a certain degree after so many years of work. Conveyor isn't a mile removed from such a belt of standby punk and hardcore traits, but One Win Choice are clearly starting to make their own unique, interesting product on it.