All Else Failed "This Never Happened" CD
[Abacus]
It's been several years since these guys' last record, and that time has been well spent in various forms, because this is by far their finest work to date across the board. The writing is more memorable, more cohesive, and more powerful, the lyrics are stronger and more communicative, the recording is better, the layout looks more attractive, etc. It's no secret that I'm generally not too big on the whole noisy and chaotic/dissonant metalcore type of thing, and that's pretty much what these guys do, but when it's done right, it can be fucking huge. And believe me, this shit is huge. Now, yes, there are some rather commonplace pull-off riffs and stuttered repetitive rhythms, and some of the jarring chords are also fairly typical, but that's not the issue. Even those riffs tend to be used in a manner that's effective, and what makes the difference here is that the playing is tight as fuck, the recording is clear and forceful, and the actual song structures flow, it's not a mess of random parts strewn about with no concern. There are tons of fucked up time changes and patterns, chunkier chords and textured attacks of caustic note choices, hints of ringing post-hardcore arrangements, etc. Plus, and here's the key point, these dudes have a fucking rigid stranglehold on their use of melody, which kicks everything up to 11. "Kinetic" and "Wishful Thinking" both contain forceful breaks with fairly obvious melodic tendencies within the massive layers of guitars and bass and the vocals, but one unexpected highlight of the disc is of course "Waterlogged", which opens with layers of dry clean guitars and singing, so overtly melodic that it's basically a literal emo/indie track! It almost seems sarcastic at first, but then you realize that they're going all out, and as it gets heavier it becomes absolutely brilliant... I never would've expected something like this from All Else Failed, and I fucking love every second of it. "All Good Things" is similar but even goes so far as to open with distant acoustic guitars before exploding in with the distortion and melodic chords, and "At Twenty-Seven" is among the more balanced tracks that fluidly meshes most of the band's approaches, and "In Our Defense" is the most straightforward composition herein, solidifying the post-hardcore undercurrents and basically ending up pretty catchy (dare I say). By contrast the brief "Simple Solution", "Step One: Give Up", and "Character Actor" are much more acerbic and grating in both tonality and delivery. Closer "After All" is simply minimal guitars and vocals, building up acoustically for several minutes before nearly whispered singing harmonies come in against droning sustained electric guitars in the background. Another twist, and a nice one at that. It's interesting the way the record develops as well, as things are generally consistent for the first 15 minutes, but from that point on it's a constant rollercoaster of varying back and forth dynamics that's quite awesome. As far as the production goes, I love it. I don't think I'd change anything. The vocals are hoarse and textured, the guitar tone is both heavy and aptly abrasive, the bass tone is thick and mildly distorted but has its own home in the mix (a very unique presence that's highly important to the rhythm section and very rare to experience in this genre), and the percussion sounds perfectly fine to me. That's not to say it's 100% perfect, but it's about as good as I've heard from this general style, and the bass presence alone gives them an amazing identity all their own. The mix is dead fucking on, perfect clarity without any major separation. The layout looks absolutely excellent. 10 times better than anything else this band has ever released. The photography is superb, some of which depicting the band's trashed practice space, others which seem to be outlining some sort of kidnapping/murder plot. There's no text on the cover, the text elsewhere is kept to a minimal level, and the fonts are all tiny and extremely crisp, so things look very clean and compact. I love it, it's fairly simple, but it looks killer. The lyrics are some of the band's finest to date as well, bitter and personal, pulling no punches but also delivered creatively enough to keep things interesting. See lines like, "Don't worry, things will only move up from here. Rock bottom, it can only get better. A broken man with broken heart, and broken dreams of being back on top..." or, "Official crowned prince of potential. When it rains it pours, right now it's torrential..." There's also about seven minutes of CD-Rom videos ("Did You Think of Me?" and "Featherweight") featuring some intense live footage with tolerable sound. It's no secret that this is one of the most tumultuous bands of all time, but the fact that they've pulled this record together is a major achievement in and of itself. If I could change any one thing I'd maybe shave off three songs to clock this puppy in at a little under 40 minutes, keeping it short but sweet without even a hint of lag time. But hey, if they break up tomorrow at the very least they documented their finest work and will no doubt blow a few minds. If they continue, then I welcome the fucking future, because this disc obliterates their past work. I'm fucking impressed... I didn't expect this to be so damn good. (9/10)
Running time - 46:06, Tracks: 14
[Notable tracks: To Whom it May Concern, Waterlogged, At Twenty-Seven, In Our Defense, After All]
Abacus Recordings - http://www.abacusrecordings.com

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