THE MEANING UNDER are an up-and-coming Italian quartet with a few deep thoughts to share. The title of the band’s first three-track EP, “Overflow,” refers to both an overflow of negative images and illusions churned out by today’s capitalist world, as well as a positive overflow of emotions and the sounds distilled from them. Appropriate, yes, but is their music any good?

The band plays tried-and-true Alternative Metal entirely devoid of any surprises. There’s loud guitars, quiet guitars, loud drums, quiet drums, and so on. Oddly, the vocals seem buried quite far down in the mix, with the guitars dominating most of the listening space. The songs aren’t terribly catchy either, mostly just being repeated, standard Rock chord sequences.

Speaking of repetition, that’s this band’s main problem. All three of the songs on “Overflow” feature long, mid-paced, semi-quiet interludes filled with uninteresting pseudo-guitar-noodling (if you can even call it that). “Horizon” ends with a minute-and-a-half of this excessively boring wankery.

Despite the beautiful album art, “Overflow” is too full of filler to make for a decent EP. All three of the songs could use a trim to snip out the boring interludes between heavy riffing. Fortunately, if you enjoy this sort of thing, or if you just want to see for yourself, you can download the full EP at the band’s website, free of charge.

(Online August 29, 2010)