Metal Lite

This week I’m going to be writing about something I admittedly don’t know a WHOLE lot about: knee socks. Well, not so much knee socks as A Day To Remember I guess... (www.myspace.com/adaytoremember). Lets talk.

A Day To Remember (ADTR) has been “in the scene” for a while now and have wedged themselves between two unlikely genres: metal and tongue-in-cheek-high-school-style pop-punk. I know. Weird right? Right.

Anyway, I recently was introduced to these guys by a friend of mine who described them as “pretty alright” and “catchy.” Being that I was in a slump of new music (before all these wonderful CDs came out by Darkest Hour, Alexisonfire, Killswitch Engage, Poison the Well, etc etc) I decided to pick up their newest record titled Homesick. On first listen I was only moderately impressed. I mean, the songs were pretty well written in that they had catchy hooks, definite progressions, and an interesting dynamic. But it was nothing earth shattering. On a gear-head note, the tones of the record are pretty sweet…but I attribute that one hundred percent to the sentence in the upper left corner of the back jacket that reads “Mixed by Adam D.” Duh. Tonemaster City one hundred percent good fun time.

I’m going to go ahead and leave the notes and general geekology about the tone of the record for you, my dedicated reader, to play around with and dive into. What I really wanted to talk about is the genre crossing that these guys do. Imagine what it would be like if Blink 182 played metal. That pretty much exactly describes how these guys sound. Blink 182 to legitimate punk rock is like ADTR to legitimate metal/metalcore. Now, I don’t say this as a bad thing at all. I mean, look at Blink…their pools are heated if you know what I mean. What I’m more referring to is the way both of these bands adhere to their genre in a very casual, playful way. From the voicing of their songs to even the titles of them, both bands take an almost high-school, ‘immature’ approach to their music.

If you listen to the song “The Downfall Of Us All” you can hear some of the aspects I’m referencing. First of all, the song titles (maybe not as apparent in this one) are a bit of a joke. How do you take a band completely seriously with songs titled “NJ Legion Iced Tea”, “Another Song About the Weekend”, and “I'm Made of Wax, Larry, What Are You Made Of?” Anyway, once you hit play, the song titles don’t really matter anymore. So first off, most of the songs on this record, and in their catalogue in general, are very hook-oriented. In “Downfall” the hook isn’t necessarily a melody so much as a rhythm…which becomes immediately obvious with the crowd-chanting rhythm in the beginning of the song. The hook is repeated, reprised, and referenced through pretty much the entire song…as a good hook should be.

Next, it seems to be a stylistic mainstay of the metal scene for a band to be heavily focused on riffage and shredding. Verses are usually built around a repetitive moving guitar lick while the choruses typically will have some big rhythm guitar playing behind a different lead lick. The pop-punk element of ADTR comes from the fact that their songs are structured largely around simple power chord progressions. The metal influence comes from the voicing of these power chords. Rather than straight forward strumming, the guitars frequently attach a heavy, palm-muted, rhythm to the progression. This is exemplified in “Downfall” I the second verse which can be heard at about 1:28 and again at 2:20 into the song.

I’m admittedly not REALLY well versed in this band or their history, but this disk is heavy on the vocals. Since a lot of the guitar work is very lackluster, or at least very downplayed in its complexity, there is a lot of room for vocal styling. The singer really dominates these songs with respect to melody. It just so happens that they style in which he sings sounds a lot like a bubblegum pop punk band. However, again they blend in that metal element every once in a bridge when the singer puts on his angry face and screamy pants and lets a verse/bridge/breakdown get nice and mad. This would be at that second verse at 1:28. That’s a ten second metal song right there.

These thematic elements seem to comprise a large majority of this record and make for an interesting listen…at least with respect to genre. At the end of the day though…Poison the Well is back in the CD player. Sorry boys…

Tropic Ripe

Oh my god it’s finally here! It’s here! Poison the Well! The Tropic Rot! Eeeee [with hands flapping at nipple height]!! It’s not like I haven’t been pining over the release of this record or anything. Not like I haven’t stayed up at night viciously you tubing for precious in-studio clips. Not like I haven’t had their myspace page open nervously clicking refresh hoping for ANY news…be it updates from touring, new photos of the studio set up so I could geek the hell out of their mic set up and stuff, or little factoids for me to store in my vast bank of ALWAYS relevant musical knowledge (which occupies corners of my brain which used to hold useless information like how to formulate coherent sentences, act in professional settings, or function as a successful engineer).

REGARDLESS! It was all NOT in vain! I now have, quite literally in my hand, my copy of the newest release from Poison the Well entitled The Tropic Rot. AHHHHHGGGGG!!

What the title means? No idea. But they’re from Florida (and not completely useless human beings…who knew Florida had ANYthing to offer?) so maybe it has something to do with that? Don’t care. The music! If you couldn’t already tell by my rant of disjointed nothingness…IT’S EXCELLENT! Let me dissect:

As Versions progressed from You Come Before You, The Tropic Rot left the comforts (?) of the winters in Scandinavia (where Versions and YCBY were recorded) and took Poison the Well to sunny Garden Grove, California to the studios of producer Steve Evetts (Dillinger Escape Plan, Every Time I Die, etc). Under his watchful eye and with his hands off approach, Evetts and the band crafted a record that built off the successes and innovations of their previous recordings under the more than talented knob-turning hands of Eskil Lövström and Pelle Henricsson and pushed the envelope of what it is to be an eleven year old hardcore band in 2009.

Sometimes when you listen to a record, what you end up hearing isn’t necessarily the talent of the band itself but rather the talent of the producer. Look at Bleeding Through’s most recent release Declaration produced by Devin Townshend…Case. And. Point. When the band is lacking in certain aspects (be it song writing, song structure, or things generally outside the actual band member’s abilities to play their instruments), it’s the job of the producer to step in and gently (or brutally) push a band in the “right” direction…please use big obnoxious finger quotation marks around the word RIGHT. RIGHT is defined to be, in this case, the artistic vision of what the producer deems a successful song or collection of songs given the current musical trends of the times. Blood has literally been shed over this subject. I heard once Art Garfunkel knifed a producer for saying his chorus wasn’t catchy enough. I’ll verify it on Wikipedia. But I digress.

One of the more interesting things I immediately noticed in this record was the influence of the band on the producer, rather than the other way around. Steve Evetts’ mixes usually come out sounding pretty conventional with respect to guitar tones, drum tones, vocal tones, etc. His snares are usually sampled to even out each stroke (meaning he’ll overdub a second snare drum hit on top of each “real” snare drum hit…this normalizes out the consistency of each snare hit), his guitars are usually pretty conventionally balanced between crunchy distortion, beefy gain, and some noise suppression for the electrical hum/fuzz in the guitar, and the vocals are usually pretty clean. To his credit, the mixes always sound good. Conventional, but good. I think where he excels is in his ability to take bands with a more alternative musical styling (like metal and hardcore) and subtly nudge them towards a more globally appealing product. Usually you can listen to a collection of records by the same producer and hear similar tones and similar song structures. On The Tropic Rot, what you hear instead is Poison the Well (PTW) pushing Evetts to use more bluesy tones, stripped down drums, raw guitars, alternate vocal processing (like putting distortion on sung lines among other stuff). Whether it was an intention of PTW to come in and “direct” Evetts to lay off the gain/distortion or whether it was a fortunate accident, the tones and sounds on this record are, first of all, atypical to Steve Evetts’ mixes, and second of all, fantastic! If anything, it’ll be a feather in his cap! An arrow in his quiver! A…um…another rock in his sling? Another missile in his arsenal? You get it. It’s proving that he can not only be accommodating but versatile.

One more quick note on the tone before I move on. I always listen to PTW and think of them as being heavily influenced in old southern blues. But I couldn’t really put my finger on exactly why I thought that. But I figured it out. The tones on their records, at very least the last three major releases, have all used VERY bluesy tones…more so in The Tropic Rot and Versions. The music is still heavy and raucous, but if you solo out the guitars and played through whatever amps they use, the tones of the guitars are very reminiscent of blues and jazz. But when played hard, the amps’ tubes naturally distort (as opposed to solid state pedals or forcing a bunch of gained overdrive) in the way a blues guitar would. Interesting stuff.

So I’ve discussed how the band successfully influenced the producer…But Matthew, how did the PRODUCER influence the BAND?! I’m dying to know! Please tell me? Well okay children, sit tight.

Listen to the structure of the songs on this album versus the previous two. You Come Before You and Versions were very experimental and more traditionally hardcore in nature. By this I mean that in some cases there weren’t really defined choruses and versus but rather repeating parts. Breakdowns or bridges seemed to be the focus of most of the songs, like the loooong bridge in the song “Letter Thing” on Versions featuring the wicked awesome slide guitar. Longer melodic passages spaced out the tone and pace of the record. On their newest release, there are still creative bits that exhibit the talents of the band nicely. I would go as far as to say Steve Evetts’ contribution or influence is actually pretty minimal…which is awesome! The guy has a tendency to let his musicians write and play what they want to write. What it seems that he does is take the parts they write and help arrange them in a fashion that both makes the song interesting when the parts aren’t by keeping the more uninteresting phrases short and creates space for the more interesting passages by helping arrange the parts around it…the jury is out whether that made sense to anybody else but me.

The beauty of this CD is that the end result is a record full of songs written and performed by Poison The Well as Poison The Well would want to be heard. They’ve taken tactics they’ve learned from other producers and records and blended them with the subtle styling of a new producer to mold and refine how they want their band to be heard and understood.

Good job boys! Thanks for not disappointing!

Guitarist Ryan Primack channeling the patented Angus Young rock and roll face.

Hiatus Undone

Aaaaalright folks. I realize I’ve been on a bit of an unscheduled and unannounced hiatus of sorts, but in all honesty, I’ve run into a little bit of a combination of sensory overload and writers block. A strange combination I know. But what it created was the perfect storm of literary stupidity. I’ve inundated myself with so much new stuff to look at, listen to, and think about that my brain is having trouble forming one coherent thought. The effect is similar to when you’re at a restaurant and hungrier than you’ve ever been in your life ever…at least that’s how it feels. The waiter hands you the menu and you start looking at it. All these options. And you’re so hungry. But all you can really make out are random numbers, letters, words, and fragments of thoughts. What plays out in your head is some weird bastardization of the menu that would read something like: “Oh god I’m so hungry. I would literally eat anything on the menu. Probably the menu itself. What is there? [opens menu] Almond crusted 10 dollars appetizer spicy burger side of tuna steak 7 chef special salad coconut farm raised Oklahoma balanced twenty seven cents tartar marbled medium horseradish…” You get it.

So with this in mind, what’s been going through my mind the past couple days/week would go something like “Finally new music! Alexisonfire is so drum tone’s sick new evergreen terrace single I think I’m Italian sub in Ferret Records screwed up my Killswitch came early E-I-E-I-O haven’t gotten my Poison the Well oh my Maxim cranes god I can’t get over that floor Darkest Hour is sick but hasn’t it gotten lost in the how am I already over shred Every Time I Die released a single punk rock Dave Grohl is such a seriously tambourine Halliburton when’s the DVD in September new Ignite House of Blues or wow Glasshouse Australia is hosting a lot of that sounded a lot but I haven’t heard them like a hollowbody…”

Needless to say that doesn’t translate well to my readership…all…seven of you?

While I try to run my thoughts through a sifter and try to pick out all the petrified turd nuggets of useless thoughts (of which there are many, example: “what’s the difference between a stretcher and a gurney”), here is what’s been keeping me occupied that I haven’t already written about:

-My undying obsession with Misery Signals.
-Parkway Drive is writing new material and releasing a DVD (with live footage…potential for a serious epic win) in September.
-Evergreen Terrace posted a new track from their upcoming CD (titled “Almost Home”…which, title-wise, can’t even begin to compare to “Wolfbiker”…but more on that whenever it comes out)
-Every Time I Die posted a new track from THEIR upcoming CD (titled “The New Junk Aesthetic”)
-The Dillinger Escape Plan is finishing up their newest CD which I didn’t even know they were writing called “Option Paralysis”
-A Day To Remember’s most recent CD caught me by surprise
-Poison the Well’s new CD (which is literally lost in the mail…because I wrote my address wrong…way to go Matthew)
-Killswitch Engage’s newest release
-New tour dates GALORE!
-Alexisonfire’s “Old Crows/Young Cardinals” has yet to find its way out of my CD player
-Patiently waiting for new Thrice and wondering in what direction they’re going to be progressing
-Hoping It Dies Today figures out whatever legal issues are preventing their FINISHED record from being released
-August Burns Red’s newest release (which I’m literally picking up immediately after posting this)
-My new artwork I’ve conceptualized and now realized from Lisa “Iconic Rock Photographer” Johnson.

This is what’s been occupying my mind. Don’t worry though, all that, and probably more, will all eventually settle out in the coming days and provide me with a bountiful harvest of tasty word bushels to put together for your ocular interpretation. But until then, look into the leads I’ve hinted at in your bored hours and check back soon.

Old Crows, Young Cardinals, Middle Aged Alexisonfire

As the anniversary of our nation’s birth arrives we fire up our grills, we ice our beers, and we don our American flag underpants. In the spirit of the weekend’s festivities, it’s only fitting that I give you my two cents on the newest record from the bacon eating, mounty loving, caribou chasing Canadians in Alexisonfire (www.myspace.com/alexisonfire).

These poor guys were stashed away for like, two WHOLE months in a studio within a stone’s throw (literally, you can see it from the doorway of the studio) of a massive brewery. Somehow, through the miracles of modern digital recording technology, they were able to edit out all the bottle clinking and belligerent yelling through the talk-back microphone. Science is awesome. ANYWAY. Splits and indie single releases aside, this is the 4th record these cheery Canadians have put out. I’d like to think that these guys haven’t peaked yet as their style, class, and talent over the past several years have only proven to progress and refine by leaps and bounds. Being the consummate greedy listener, I can’t WAIT to see what the next step in the ascension to rock god-dom will bring. But in the mean time let’s focus on the tasty ear nuggets they’ve given us this past week.

I’d blobbed a couple weeks ago (I know, I’m hilarious) about the newest release from a band called The Chariot. I had mentioned that their record wasn’t genre bending and how that can be okay because as an aggressive statement in hardcore, it only solidified the band as a mainstay in their genre, and only their genre. “Old Crows/Young Cardinals” by Alexisonfire does the opposite of this with a similar outcome. Rather than affirming their status as the premier band in the Canadian (and American) hardcore scene by releasing a record that sounds just like their other records, Alexisonfire took a step forward with their song writing, their style, and their technical abilities in their newest release while still advancing their status as a household hardcore name. Whereas it takes a certain level of technical prowess to possess the ability to shred at one’s instrument, I would argue (and maybe expand into a separate entry) that it almost takes MORE talent to possess this ability but restrain in its use. There are little guitar fills and licks here and there that exhibit the talent these guys posses (like in the opening of “Born and Raised”) but there’s never an extended portion of a song that is just a series of parts strung together to show how the individuals dominate their instruments. An example of the opposite would be the band Trivium who pretty much write songs just to show off an unbelievable solo.

Beyond the restraint these guys show, there’s a wide variety of genres exhibited on this disk that make it quite an enjoyable listening experience…to put it pleasantly for a change. The disk starts out with a really awesome throwback vibe to old school 1980s punk. George, the screamer guy, changed up how he articulated his voice going from a scream to more of a grainy yell type thing. The verses of the song “Young Cardinals” have an awesome old school feel to them. To compliment George’s punk styling, Wade (one of the guitar players) sings in much the same fashion but with a slightly different timbre. Then there’s Dallas. Oooh Dallas Green. He sings…to me. This dude has pipes. Contrasted to the punk undertones, Dallas’s SUPER clear vocals cut through the mix like something really sharp cutting through something pretty soft. Not to mention that songs like “The Northern” and “Burial” seem to have been written in such a way as to provide Dallas with a blank canvas to paint glorious vocal colors all over. In fact, speaking of genre bending, “Burial” as a song sounds closer to a song by Dallas’s folk-indie side project (City and Colour) in that it borders on the stripped down, natural sound of a folk song. Of course, to bridge the gap between the punk revival (“Accept Crime”, “Young Cardinals”, “No Rest”) and the borderline folk (“Burial” and “The Northern”) are some good ole fashioned rock and roll tunes that have a very comfortable, familiar feel to them (“Headed For The Sun” and “Midnight Regulations”). The comfortable sound is a testament to Alexisonfire’s capability to not only write a catchy riff, but write a coherent song. This ability, while not tied to technical skill, is easy to do, but difficult to do and sound NATURAL doing it. In the first spin of this disk, I was listening to songs I’d never heard before and by the second or third chorus, was already humming along the melody, filling in the words I was able to pick up without realizing it. This is NOT a talent of the listener. It’s exclusively a trait of the band writing the song.

To make a song relatable on a melodic front takes a lot of talent and a lot of conscious song writing proficiency. I would go as far as to say that this ability would go hand in hand with the capacity to demonstrate restraint as a musician as the tendency is to use a song to showcase your flair and talent. Alexisonfire has done this while at the same time relating the scene and genre they came from to a listener who may not have found it appealing on first exposure.

So again I’ll end my post with the following:


Epic. WIN!!

The Alexisonfire drum tracking...can you HEAR me geeking out from wherever you're sitting?!