Review
The Casket Lottery
The Door

There was definitely a time a few years back (or ten if you are keeping score) where I followed (along with my wife) The Casket Lottery around the middle Atlantic states like some people followed (or even still do I guess) The Grateful Dead; during that time, we devoured every note that the three piece outfit saw fit to release into the ether and relished every single opportunity to see them in the flesh (seeing them play their collaborative cover with Small Brown Bike and Rocky Votolato is still a vivid memory for us).

The two songs on this teaser single are rather shocking to hear at first because I was expecting a complete return of the same old Casket Lottery that I loved and adored complete in all their math-y indie rock glory, but with an expanded line up (now the band is a five piece), I guess that happening should have been completely thrown out of my mind; hearing The Door immediately set me onto listening to the entire discography just to see if there were hints of this seven inch EP’s sounds were tucked into anywhere else in any of the band’s other songs.

Sure enough this revived Casket Lottery does still sound like what the band originally did at times, “My Father’s Son” has those odd and quirky rhythms that the boys previously could drop at will along with the driving bass lines and chiming guitars while “The Door” has some of those elements as well; perhaps it was the more mature sounding vocals and the lack of those strained, off key but completely endearing and passionate group vocals or maybe Nate’s overall more accomplished and slicker lead vocal delivery (other than a brief moment in the title track, there is no heavier vocals that The Casket Lottery used to employ at times).

After spending a great deal of time with these two songs, I can honestly and in good conscious stamp the revived Casket Lottery a welcome event as The Door not only shows the band returning with no rust whatsoever but also returning with a new vitality and some new tricks for their already accomplished repertoire; if you were a fan of the band previously and were waiting to see if this was a lame cash grab or a return to form, rest easy, grab this little teaser EP, and get caught up in the awesome sounds that these guys were known for prior… The Casket Lottery is back!