The first two EPs by Yesterdays Rising, 2003's Ship of Relations and 2004's When We Speak, We Breathe, were smart, hard fusions of post-hardcore and speed metal. The success of those two small indie releases got the California-based band on the Vans Warped Tour, supposedly the youngest band ever to play that teen-friendly circuit. Something about the experience must have caused a major rethink in the band, because Yesterdays Rising's full-length debut, Lightworker, sounds almost like the work of a different band. Gone are the extended instrumental intros and atmospheric interludes, as are the sudden right turns into entirely different B sections. In their place are a dozen fairly anonymous slabs of emo-tinged punk with a light metal sheen. (There's also a hidden track, a quiet and surprisingly effective piano-and-voice ballad.) The songs are shorter and more melodically straightforward, falling back on repetitive choruses too often, and at the expense of what had previously been the most interesting aspect of their sound. It might expand their audience a bit, but Lightworker is a rather disappointing album.