Vaux "Plague Music" CD
[Equal Vision]
I don't know much about this band, but they have three guitarists, all of whom also handle some sort of keyed instrument, be it piano, keyboards, or organ. Though, honestly, you'd never really know it, because most of these tracks don't use keyboards very overtly at all, and nothing jumps out at me as feeling like there are three distinct guitar parts working together either. But, that being said, this is still pretty good. It's basically a rock band with a lot of indie/emo sort of trappings circling around in there. The vocals shift from shouting or screaming to dirty singing, clean singing, and some killer vocal harmonies; the guitar parts vary from slightly heavier rhythmic surges to bright open chords or really powerful rocked out moments, on occasion getting a bit trippier with effects and such; etc. I've heard better, it's not totally my thing, but it's good. It's not generic either, there's no typical "retro rock" bullshit, it's not whiny and overly melodic, it's not too laidback nor is it particularly chaotic... they write good songs, they've got a good recording, and they keep thing short but sweet. There are definitely some unusual things happening, too. For example, the title track brings in some chunky off kilter rhythms and note-based riffs that are far heavier than anything else on the disc - not metal, just... heavier... surprisingly so. It's a very dynamic track, shifting a number of times in its 4:40 running time, bringing in clean guitars and softer passages, etc. And "Sex Will Happen Tonight" brings in the only overtly "electronic" sounding passages of the EP, and is also rather obnoxious as a result, as some of the synths sound great but the main melody is too irritating for me to really get past until the guitars slowly build in and start to let other layers take precedence. A creative track, not as good as it could be, but at least they're shooting for something unusual, right? I have no complaints with the recording, really. The drums sound nice and warm, the bass is there, the guitars are bright but also very dense without lacking texture or being too heavy, the vocals sound fine, etc. Sometimes the overall thickness clouds the mix a little and might obscure minor details, but for the most part the layering really makes itself known and I'm definitely a big fan of the drum tones. The disc comes in a nice looking digipack with lots of abstract artwork combining subtle diagrams and blurred textures with gloss overlay printing of knives and strange lettering/symbols. All of the text is quite small and compact, with the lyrical content taking a fairly abstract stance, which still comes off as uninteresting to me: Relationships and all that stuff, the usual. It just doesn't strike me, is all. But I like the songs, so... this is a solid 16 minutes of rockin' out. I'm not blown away, but it's cool. I'll be curious to hear where they go with it in the future. (7/10)
Running time - 16:30, Tracks: 5
[Notable tracks: Raid!, Plague Music]
Equal Vision Records - http://www.equalvision.com

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