I will freely admit that I went into Adelphia, the second album of post-hardcore sextet A Skylit Drive, with almost no knowledge of their previous material. Some of my more jaded friends described them to me as a scene band on the decline: EP > LP #1 > LP #2. They justified this by calling the new material "boring." After a few listens, I can understand how they formed that opinion.

I just happen to disagree.

Granted, within two tracks I had pigeon-holed them as "Circa Survive meets Emarosa meets Alesana." If that's what my friends meant by boring -- that ASD's formula has been tried and tested many, many times before -- I have no substantial rebuttal. They are certainly not the first band to brandish melodic post-hardcore with high-pitched vocals. What saves them from mediocrity is that even if their style is predictable or tone is uniform from song to song, they still do what they do extremely well.

If I had to pick a single adjective for it, Adelphia can be safely categorized as "soaring." The musicianship is quite competent, with enjoyably technical and melodic guitar riffs saturating the album. The band's loud/soft dynamic works well, and Michael Jagmin flexes the upper register of his vocals like a champ; If Shawn Milke took voice lessons from Anthony Green, this is what he'd sound like. The drumming is top-notch, and the few electronic elements woven through things add an interesting facet to ASD's sound. The album's one critical flaw is that the material easily bleeds into itself -- but we'll get to that.

Adelphia bursts out of the gate with "Prelude to a Dream," a bombastic track that admirably balances Jagmin's clean vocal delivery with short bursts of screamo courtesy of Brian White. ASD are thankfully smart enough to put a cap on the growling in each song, letting Jagmin shine as the star of the disc and avoiding the trap Alesana so often fall into. There's also a dash of synth to the track, tastefully understated to pin the melodies down without becoming an overbearing element. It goes a long way to add cinematic flair to numbers like "Running With The Light" as well. However, flair and melody can only go so far without innovation. This is where ASD get the most points docked.

A few stand-out tracks aside, Adelphia spends a majority of time rewriting its own material. The stop-and-go drums overlayed with reverb-soaked guitar licks seem interchangable from song to song, and Jagmin's melodies, while always pleasant, don't vary much aside from a handful of sparingly-used hooks. ASD seem to compensate for that with numerous interludes on the album, either as stand-alone tracks ("Worlds End in Whispers Not Bangs" and "Air The Enlightenment") or within tracks themselves. They do help to break things up (in fact, that second track is a highlight of the disc), but the niggling feeling remains that by halfway into the set, ASD's bag of tricks is beginning to empty. Opinions on ASD and this album in particular diverge based on that sentiment.

As someone who came in expecting a typical scene record full of chugging breakdown and raspy howls, I was pleasantly surprised by the strong emphasis on melody and dynamics. The grandest moments come when all of ASD's elements coalesce on songs like "Eva The Carrier" and the titular "The Children of Adelphia." It is in these tracks that the band provides something truly captivating -- assuming you're sold on their formula and genre to begin with. If you're a fan of Underoath or any of the other bands mentioned previously, you'll find this album to be the two scoops of raisins in your healthy post-hardcore breakfast. Otherwise, you'll be bored within the first five minutes.

Adelphia was an enjoyable listen for me and has certainly sparked my interest in ASD enough to warrant a look at their back catalog; but I'm not expecting any of it to reinvent the wheel. The stuttering riffs and oscillating licks, the drum rolls, the chord progressions -- they're great for the dedicated, but it's all been done before, and in Adelphia's case, it's often been done one or two tracks before. When you think about it, a post-hardcore goldfish would love these guys.

Speaking of which, can someone change the water in my tank already?