Amber Pacific - Possiblity & The Promise (CD)

All Music Guide

On the heels of their 2004 debut EP, Fading Days, the youthful Federal Way, WAbased emopunk stalwarts in Amber Pacific return with a heightened presence of rock muscle on The Possibility and the Promise. Launching the album with the scorching, emotive "Everything We Were Has Become What We Are" which goes so far as to incorporate a string section at one point the bandmembers exhibit a musical depth beyond their early twenties, even if the simplistic Dashboard Confessionallike lyrics seem so high school. Still, frontman Matt Young is a star in waiting, as his peers borrow from everyone from Thrice to Matchbook Romance to AFI. Those punk and poppunk inspirations aren't bad ones, as the hookladen "Gone So Young" and the sappy punch of "The Right to Write Me Off" assure, and with time and little more ingenuity Amber Pacific could make the big time.

- John D. Luerssen, All Music Guide