Twelve Tribes "The Rebirth of Tragedy" CD
[Ferret]
You know, I've heard about this band numerous times over the last few years but even though something about the band name always made me curious, I never paid a damn bit of attention to 'em. I only recently bought this disc after hearing a song on a sampler that I really liked, and now I'm pissed that I waited so long, because this is a great fuckin' CD. It's basically solid post-hardcore hinting at a more tangible and creative metalcore angle with a definite focus on rhythm, and they've got an excellent knack for making discordant textures really work in a subtly melodic format that memorably layers together lots of instrumentation with a consistently driving tempo. Vocally most of the tracks are geared towards aggressive shouting with accents of screaming, though on occasion there are some nice hip-hop influenced vocal patterns and some singing. Based on some of the hip-hop undercurrents I can't help but draw a few comparisons to Orange 9mm (who I was always a huge fan of), but overall this stuff is much more melodic, yet still somehow darker and more metallic. And do not overreact or place too much emphasis on the references to hip-hop, because it's all extremely tactful and quite infrequent, so it's nothing that plays a major role at all. There are also a lot of really cool little details to the songwriting that add a technical sort of thread that probably goes unnoticed most of the time since it's far from overt, but listening closely in headphones there's a shitload going on, notably in longer and more colorful cuts like closer "Flight of the Pathogen". "Venus Complex" is definitely my favorite track herein, opening with a slightly slower and more ominous set of riffs, later using a few more openly melodic smatterings and the strongest delivery of singing vocals for an amazing chorus... a fucking great track through and through. "Chroma" brings in some of the more rhythmic vocal arrangements (very cool and definitely effective here) over a really curious guitar riff that winds back and forth between discordance and melody with lots of quick changes in time signature. "The Train Bridge" then slows it down again and beefs up the heaviness a little more with some sinister lead lines and an aggressive vocal performance that really carries the track's 6+ minutes along with some nice variations in dynamics and extended instrumental breaks. "Luma" brings in more interesting vocal patterns with a slightly faster pace in a more compact three-minute timeframe that lets the melodic elements blend nicely with the chunkier chord progressions to really leave a mark. The production is fucking awesome, I have no complaints at all. The guitars are really heavy but possess a nice texture that lets the notes ring out and keeps a level of detail intact for the individual layers, the bass is just evident enough to do more than simply thicken things up, the percussion sounds fine by me (highlighting an awesome drum performance with lots of raging fills and interesting little intricacies to the patterns), and the vocals are perfect. I really wouldn't change anything about the recording at all, for what they're doing it scarcely gets better than this, so they've got a great punch to their overall impact. Visually everything looks great with a lot of high contrast imagery collaged over dirty, dark textures with lots of rich browns, while inside you basically get the lyrics crammed in over some slightly more simplistic brown textures. The songs deal with a mix of content from the personal to more of a socio-political sort of commentary, but everything is open enough to be read into, which is nice. "Pain has long been the lost humiliation of the soul, And I've been caught between what's real and what's for sale, I'm not the one who profits, From stainless masquerades I've come to terms with my fixations, The timelessness of your act won't be the end of me." Damn good stuff. I hope their next record doesn't take as long to drop as this one did, because I'm really looking forward to hearing more from these guys. This is definitely one of the better records I've heard in recent times that really builds off of a classic, heavy post-hardcore framework. Very much recommended... I've been spinning this one quite a bit lately, and I enjoy it more and more with repeated listens. (9/10)
Running time - 45:02, Tracks: 10
[Notable tracks: Venus Complex, Chroma, The Train Bridge, Luma]
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