At last Lovitt Records’ darling Engine Down has finally released a follow-up to their highly acclaimed breakthrough record To Bury Within the Sound.

Forming from the remnants of Sleepytime Trio, The Weak Link Breaks and Bughummer, the Virginia-based band has always tried hard to define themselves as something unique. A powerful rhythm section and Keeley Davis’ trademark strained vocals have all contributed to a sound that is synonymous with the band.

Built upon intense repetition of guitar lines and vocal refrains, Demure is a slight departure for the band that was much more aggressive on their debut Under the Pretense of Present Tense, but less melodic than To Bury Within the Sound.

“Second of February” builds its tension off the same simple riff that supports the song structurally. Like many tracks on Demure, recycled droning guitars form the blueprint for each song.

Even with this formula, songs like “Pantomime,” with melancholic Disintegration-era Cure guitar solos, still clock in at four minutes plus.

Disappointingly, the band exists in a murky limbo, one it’s not dynamic enough to rise above. Without the complexity and intensity of its predecessors, Sleepytime Trio, the band never musters enough strength to be exciting hardcore. Though Engine Down has always managed to defy genre and classification, it is almost to its own detriment.

Lyrically and vocally, Davis seems to be caught in the same “emo” clichés of repetitious and cryptic lines like “She has too much already,” which often seems meaningless. No matter the song or the situation, Davis’ familiar vocal melodies evoke the same tired feelings. Despite being an anchoring arm for the group’s sound, Davis’ vocal leadership is beginning to sound more like a hindrance.

In spite of the mild experimentation presented here and more so on To Bury Within the Sound, Engine Down has yet to find a sound that is both novel and exciting. The band might have succeeded at being a recognizable sound, but not one that is very versatile.

Like Davis’ vocal delivery, the band seems to be one pony that is fresh out of tricks–the one trick it does have most of us have seen at least once before. Interestingly, one of the last few tracks on Demure, “Second of February,” sadly boasts over and over “seen it before, seen it before”–in many ways, so have we.