When a band cites artists such as Third Day, Foo Fighters and U2 as its influences, listeners would be apt to guess that that band has got something that the listener wants. Well, such is the case for Canadian fourpiece Reinstate. Their self-titled EP was recorded in the Summer of 2009 and consists of eight rock songs that exist somewhere along the line that divides mainstream rock and a more accessible pop rock sound. EP opener "Not Too Late" slightly resembles Nickelback, yet with a voice that brings to mind ApologetiX vocalist J. Jackson's unsuccessful attempts at using a rock voice. Reinstate lead vocalist Tim Comtois doesn't have an awful voice by any means, but it does sound like he is using his voice in ways where he has to stretch them. However, I can tell that with time, his vocals should adapt the way he wants them to. On a positive note, "Not Too Late" does a good job of encouraging us to give everything to Jesus ("It's not so hard to give your all when you find out it's not yours at all"). "Alive" does bear a subtle Foo Fighters sound, but also sounds like it has a lot of modern country ballad influence mixed in as well. Definitely not a bad thing, as they are able to pull off the sound very well, but it's the vocals again that bring the song down. The music is what ends up being the strongest part of the Reinstate EP. "Close" may be the weakest of the eight songs, with music that isn't really bad, but ends up being just okay. It's not poorly-written, it just mildly lacks the ability to hold the listener's attention. The rest however, such as the poppy guitar hooks of "Merry Way" and the Hole-styled rocker "Time" are well done, and give the listener a great idea of who Reinstate is and what they could potentially accomplish in the future. But first, the vocals, though not horrible, do need quite a bit of polishing. It would also be nice to hear the guys craft their tunes into something that has more definition to it. It takes a lot to be noticed above the endless sea of independent rock bands, so Reinstate definitely needs to do something to show that there is more to them than what one could find on a million different MySpace music pages. In my opinion, I think Reinstate has this capability, and I'm looking forward to hearing great things from them in the near future.

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