Bane "The Note" CD
[Equal Vision]
Here's the long awaited new record from the ever popular Bane, their first full-length in three or four years, and as always they deliver an energetic dose of sincere, melodic hardcore.  Is it a good record?  Absolutely.  But I have to confess, perhaps my expectations were too high, but I'm not nearly as floored as I was hoping to be.  I was never really into the band until "Give Blood" hit the streets, and that shit blew me out of the water immediately, but despite being a solid record this disc's not grabbing me in the same way.  So what's the "problem", for lack of a better term?  Well, nothing serious, but I think the recording is definitely a little flattened out in areas.  All of the tones sound pretty good to me, and the mix seems adequately balanced as well, but something feels like it's missing.  I don't know, it feels like it ought to be a little louder, a little clearer, a little brighter, you know?  It's no big deal, if you turn the volume up a little more it starts to fill out better and for the most part it sounds crisp, but there's room for some tweaking in there.  Writing-wise I guess maybe the biggest hitch for me is that there's a lot of midpaced playing that lacks the explosive energy that was so prevalent on "Give Blood".  I absolutely love all of the quick little melodic accents that they toss in against the standard hardcore chord progressions, especially some of the dissonant chord phrasings and arpeggiated riffs, and the straight yelling vocals with lots gang backup shouts are as forceful as ever.  And hey, the slightly chunkier breaks are slick as well.  But it's not until the fourth track, "Hoods Up", that the songwriting starts to feel more robust and memorable - taking a subtly more creative twist to what has become Bane's trademark approach.  And they are pushing themselves to try new things, too.  For instance, "Pot Committed" even throws in a quick break of piano midway through, while "End With an Ellipsis" messes with some spoken vocals and lush clean guitars that are pretty unexpected.  "Swan Song" even flirts with brief appearances of singing, though it doesn't feel too natural within the context of the rest of the record.  But in the end the songs kind of sound similar to one another, both in playing styles and as far as the tempos are concerned.  It's like with every new track I keep waiting for a burst of speed to hit me and pick things up a little, but they very rarely break out of that driving sort of midpaced stroll.  The vocal performance is dead on and has all the energy and emotion that it should, but the song structures don't always do their part to match that.  Late in the disc things definitely strengthen up with the barely speedier "Don't Go" and the awesome "Wasted on the Young" (the only longer song that keeps the moderate pacing and still totally hits the mark), and that does help.  The layout's definitely different from the norm, with a lot of weird comic book-ish illustrations depicting an array of scenes in a character's life, from blissfulness to pure terror, so it's a little hard to get a feel for the sequence of events and such.  As expected the lyrics are completely sincere and deal with a range of pretty standard hardcore topics, just in a more honest and thought out manner: "Why does only death show us how much we truly mean to each other, The beautiful things that we're not ready to lose or have yet to try?  Knowledge does not come in books it comes in caskets, I don't wanna see how brave we can be anymore, I've seen the strength it takes to get past and move on, And would trade it all away to know how to keep you here forever, Maybe I've grown too old, Missed out on the glamour and the glory, Just can't see past the tears and the pain, Oh please don't bury me in the rain."  Like I said, this is a good record, I like it.  I don't think fans of the band will be disappointed, but you shouldn't go into it expecting something as immediately in your face and explosive as "Give Blood" was.  It's a consistent listen, but not one that really hits as hard as the band is truly capable at their best. (7/10)
Running time - 28:01, Tracks: 10
[Notable tracks: Hoods Up, Don't Go, Wasted on the Young]
Equal Vision Records - http://www.equalvision.com

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