Something Corporate's Josh Partington grabs the mic and takes center stage on Dancehall Apocalypse, the debut album from the guitarist's side project Firescape. An escape from the poppier, piano-driven shades of his mothership, here Partington is free to indulge his wildest, epic dreams and finally unleash the guitar hero that lurks within. That metal monster bursts out "Right from the Start," the set's opening track, a big rocker with an explosive chorus and an incendiary riff of a hook. And guitar riffs reign supreme across this apocalypse, ever shifting and changing focus, interweaving or dueling across the disc. "Erase This" epitomizes the assault, with a heaving rocking riff seething below while a brighter, more melodic one skitters above, as Partington and fellow guitarist Brian Weber battle for supremacy. The pair beautifully interweave across "This Feels," a moody wash of introspective guitar work, until one guitar and then the other begins to harden into alt rock, a style which finally overflows on the bigger-than-life chorus. This dynamic is at work on many of the songs, whose more understated verses explode into splashy choruses ripped through with emotion. It's a particularly effective strategy on "The Sound" and "Breathe In," the former boasting lovely guitar riffs, the latter a showy hybrid of hard rock and pop. "Postcards Miss You More" is more stylistically integrated, infectious pop/rock with an emotive core. In contrast, "Oh No" boasts exhilarating stop-start passages and the most dramatic shifts in dynamics, the chorus exploding like a bomb in the midst of the calm of the verses. Encompassing grunge and a power ballad, the album is seeped in an epic quality and doused in emotion, the lyrics throughout have a poetic edge that reaches an apotheosis on "Impossible." The song speeds by like a racing heart, while Partington tag teams his own vocals, then softly spews out poetry while the music builds towards its crescendo. Across its career, Something Corporate has hinted at the possibilities that reach fruition here, in an emo-clad, alt-rocker album of magnificent proportions. ~ Jo-Ann Greene, All Music Guide