Reviewsic [ri-vyoo-zik] -noun: Music worth talking about

Heavy and attention grabbing, Group Therapy comes at you with full willingness to share their story. Lyrics that are raw, though at times seemingly trite, this band gives off the first impression of coming at you with clenched fists, when really they’ve just got their heart on their sleeve.
Making music together since 2003, with a line up change in 2004, the reformed Group Therapy has put together songs of heavy expression, telling their experiences with homelessness, loss, and drug addiction.
Though taken apart and built back up a few times over, Group Therapy has been working toward making a name for themselves, and even finished an impressive 6th out of 400 bands in the Rockstar Get a Life contest, after entering with just two weeks left until the end date.
Though the band has obvious passion and desire, upon hearing the rough tracks off their upcoming release Pieces for the Broken, we can only hope they’re saving the best for the albums big Summer 09’ debut. We cut the guys some slack, considering these are rough tracks and the mastering process does wonders for cleaning up sound, but there are a few things we’d like to hear tweaked that the best producer can’t change.
Group Therapy needs to tighten up the sound of its drum kit, which comes across sounding too cymbal-y, and with more banging than rhythm. The guitar riffs (especially those used in Grey Skies and Goodbyes) are juvenile and generic, but do show some promise in other tracks such as Come Home. Vocals offered up by the group border on unimpressive at times, but also come at the listener with strength in their gut wrenching screams and accents of “ohh’s” (Grey Skies and Goodbyes). Our suggestion is to work on getting more control of those vocal chords, because potential does seem to be there.
As was mentioned before, the lyrics of Group Therapy can be a bit trite and unoriginal, but laced within some of the monotony are a few impressive ‘one liners’.
In My Disease there’s mention of asking for “…the time to re-stitch my seams”, and in Grey Skies and Goodbyes a clever quip, saying “As the cloud rolls over this old street/Curiosity kitten had to peek/But the drop from the window was too deep”
All in all, Group Therapy is a band that is more than a little rough around the edges, but with the right focus and tweaks could be a big hit in the Chicago music scene. We look forward to seeing what final adjustments come to Pieces for the Broken and its release this summer.

www.myspace.com/grouptherapy313