Serious as a heart-attack guitar rock combining some east coast influence rock (most tastily notable in the Quicksand-like guitars that occasionally hit with a much less stripped down Helmet feel) with some harder core rage to come up with a lean, mean guitar-barking machine.

The opener, "Target" hits like a Filter tune that's been slapped silly. From the first listen through, the anticipation for Snapcase's newest, "Designs for Automation" was met with a heavy dosage and intelligent melody without ever bowing down to any other sensibility than to scrape the walls with your ears. This rages from song one on through its entire listen. Great guitar work coming out of the team of Jon Salemi and Frank Vicario, which commands most the attention throughout this release.

Lyrically, the ideas are well written and delivered with a passion -- although Daryl Taberski has a severely limited range of what he does vocally, but his tone is semi-audible (lyrics are thankfully included) and non-offensive at worst -- and a capable vehicle for the bark/yell at best. This gruff vocal presence will put a certain ceiling on the bands appeal (if he'd do more than just the monotone yells and barks, it would do WONDERS for this band as the rest of the unit continually challenges itself in creating separable musical ideals only to have one song smear into the next by this repetitive presence).

Edgy, at times tinny harsh, jerky and deliberate - Designs for Automation holds the line along aggressive indie-hard rock (slight punk) and offers an album full of rippin' guitar-fueled anguish.