At first glance I thought “well, here we have some half-shitty, overproduced nu-metal, claiming to be metalcore…”. I was wrong.

Treatment plays a hybrid of thrash and nu-metal, which is enough to scare away most old-school metalheads. I like to give bands a chance, as that is one of the few ways to positive surprise. The press material promises “emo-influences”, but luckily these are quarantined solely in the worst song of the EP, “What I’ve Become”. That song contains enough boo-hoo-hooing to actually verify the emo-influence claim. Skip it.

The other three songs are actually not bad at all! Treatment are good musicians and know their way around ear-hanging riff’s and powerful melodies. I actually caught myself headbanging a bit to the Annihilator-like “Down Again” – very rock n’ roll riff-work on that one.

Especially the title track “Slavery” kicks some seriously thrahsy ass.

The thing that wrecks Treatments rating is the singing. If you go for pure vocals, make sure you don’t sound like a whining teenager. The screeches are far better, but they are too few.

Oh yeah, and don’t read the lyrics if you are as choosy as I. They stink in the juvenile way!

A pleasing aspect of the EP is that all the “artistic” intro/outro stuff (which is apparently obligatory on modern metal productions) are confined in tracks of their own. Thus you can skip them without trouble, and they don’t disturb a party-playlist, as you can just add the actual songs. It’s a very good innovation I think!

All in all, Slavery is an EP slightly above the standard mediocre nu-metal high school band, but there is a lot of potential hidden behind it. I guess this treatment is not for me. My case demands something stronger.