Remembering Never "Women and Children Die First" CD
[Ferret]
I'd definitely say this is Remembering Never's best material to date. I liked their previous records, but they didn't really stand the test of time for me, and the recording and songwriting here are far more forceful. The production is huge, with resonant percussion, a nice vocal presence, thick and thundering guitars and bass that fuse together nicely, and just the right amount of brightness to give the more abrasive moments that extra bite. It's definitely a thick sounding record, and that makes a lot of difference. The music changes up a lot with stuttered rhythmic grooves and disharmonic guitar lines, sort of coming off as controlled chaos as far as the noisiness or jarring changeups are concerned. But they hold things in place by utilizing a lot of really emphatic melody, and a great vocal performance dominated by midrange screams contrasted by effective singing helps things along too. The only minor, minor setback I would cite (aside from the fact that, yeah, let's be honest, this isn't all that original) is that a lot of the slower passages are definitely too slow, which drags out some of the songs longer than necessary and prolongs the impact of a few really powerful riffs. "Plotting a Revolution in A Minor" is one of the more moderately paced tracks that keeps things moving despite the tempos with a good flow of changes and some really interesting melodic runs or bits of sustained feedback and such. On the other hand "Incisions" is generally much faster and more technical, not to mention longer, and the incredible thick melodic chords and singing vocals that break in should be explored much further rather than being dropped in favor of some more generic and uninteresting progressions that lack that same kick. I really like the layout here. The imagery is all bleak and everything is consistent as far as tone and color scheme and such. The text is nice and clean, the images are grittier and well textured, etc. I don't remember this band's past lyrics being as political as they are on this record, but I like a lot of the delivery as well as the brief explanations that follow each set of lyrics. The topics cover everything from religion and animal rights to greed, desensitization, and then some more personal issues or topics more closely pertaining to the literal hardcore scene. "Force-fed youth watch crippled America, Dependent on things not seen in black and white, Responsibility is a dying art form, Everything is out of (gun) control, 'From my cold dead hands' you said, Throw your gift into the fire, Into the fire of apathy..." I still feel that the writing needs a bit more consistency within individual compositions, as there's a lot of cut and paste riff overkill in some of these songs where a more cohesive and developed core would be beneficial, but this is still a promising record that points to more improvements in the band's future. Oh, and hidden at the end of the disc is an unlisted cover of Pantera's "Strength Beyond Strength", and I don't give a fuck what anyone says, that song fucking kills and the cover of it here is awesome, too! (7/10)
Running time - 45:00 (approximately), Tracks: 10
[Notable tracks: Plotting a Revolution in A Minor, Incisions, Closed Caskets, Strength Beyond Strength]
Ferret Music - http://www.ferretstyle.com

This review has been displayed 2834 times.