The Black Maria "Lead Us to Reason" CD
[Victory]
This Canadian act features ex-members of Grade, Zyon, and New Day Rising and plays relatively straightforward and polished emo. Think midpaced tempos, lots of shifts between distortion and clean guitars, strong singing with plenty of vocal harmonies, constant melody and a good amount of dense layering between instruments, etc. It's nothing I'd call new or innovative, but I do like it better than Grade's later work, and it's way better than other ex-Grade bands like Somehow Hollow. I'd say it walks the line between the more popular side of 90's emo and the more popular side of contemporary emo, with some post-hardcore rhythms coming in at times, and well textured riffs that aren't too stripped down and basic. It's also catchy and memorable without being what I'd call poppy, and this isn't the whiny/screamy kind of stuff at all. "The Memento" opens pretty true to form for the genre but is definitely one of the most infectious tracks herein (damn effective, as the chorus kicks ass), "Our Commitment's a Sickness" opens with more of a rocked out chord progression and gets ever so slightly heavier towards the end thanks to some forceful drumming; "The Lines We Cross" opens softly with piano and slowly introduces clean guitars, remaining very calm for most of its duration; "Sirens" is one of the more dynamic tracks and lets the basslines really shine, while adding some acoustic guitars in with the distorted chords; "Ash" is another slower and darker tune with lots of chorused clean guitars and dense vocal layering that really stands out a lot; and closer "Rats in the Prison" is one of the most blatantly rock influenced tracks as far as its straight up power chords and catchy structure - definitely among my favorites and a good way to go out. I have no real issues with the recording. I think the center of the mix drops out just a touch, leaving the vocals resting barely out front, but beyond that it's cool. The tones are all nice and dense and fit their approach with significant clarity, so all I'd like to hear would be the guitars inch up a little louder there in the core. I really like how the basslines pop out and refrain from mirroring the guitars all the time. Maybe things could be a little brighter in certain areas? I don't know, it sounds pretty good. The layout's alright. I'm not blown away but it is consistent and clean... and I do enjoy the color scheme. The lyrics tend to be pretty open and come across as personal, but they could be interpreted as commentary on larger issues as well. Even though I'm not really hit by the content there are some nice passages, too. "When you wear failure like scars, and your dreams landed way off mark, and you know you want to make things right for the first time in your life, and your trophies from when you were young are just symbols of where you went wrong, Well you know how it goes..." Not too shabby. I have to admit that when I first heard about this band a few months ago I didn't think it was gonna be that great, but I'm pleasantly surprised by this. I'm not blown away, and there are definitely a few songs that outshine the others here, but I'll be curious to hear their next outing. (6/10)
Running time - 37:21, Tracks: 11
[Notable tracks: The Memento, Ash, Rats in the Prison]
Victory Records - http://www.victoryrecords.com

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