The Assistant "We'll Make the Roads by Walking" CD
[Alone]
More chaotic and discordant metalcore with tons of changes and relentless screaming vocals... plus some decidedly "emo" angles. This is a little bit too jarring for me as far as throwing a million riffs together without a great deal of fluidity, but they do have their moments of greatness, and I like that they mix it up with some slower and more straightforward chord progressions as well. A good dose of subtle melody also works in their favor, occasionally made more apparent with some clean guitars and the like. Technically I can generally deal with the haphazard nature of the their songs structures because they keep things moving so much that the boring parts tend to be overlooked in favor of the more powerful portions, but the fact that many of the songs clock in at more than six or seven minutes is definitely problematic in that respect, because after awhile you just can't keep up or remember where you are. They can hold themselves over for three or four minutes, but beyond that it just starts to become a blur and sound the same, and I'm not really sure what justifies having a song run for more than eight minutes when there's no clear-cut path at work. The calm clean guitars and slick drum fills that carry the repetitive (and largely instrumental) "Tom Hanks Has a Huge Beard" work perfectly though, and the song is definitely one of the most powerful herein as a result, even if it is seven minutes long. Similarly the piano, acoustic guitars, and female singing in "An Afternoon at the Badlands" are fucking amazing, and the song's generally more structured sense of aggression is more effective. The recording isn't that bad, but it lacks detail. The vocals tend to be dominant, with drums resting behind them, and then guitars and bass, so it gets a little bit over the top and unclear, but... it's alright. There's a lot of density, and the bass tone has a nice space of its own, I'd just like to hear a more balanced mix where the dry tones can maneuver around each other without cluttering things up. The CD comes in a cool package - the outer booklet is oversized and folds within a plastic sleeve that holds the disc and an enormous booklet that's chock full of lyrics and lengthy song explanations, as well as some photos along the way. The lyrics deal with everything from positivity and personal experiences to politics, communication, the way that violence misrepresents what straightedge is really about, etc. I really like the song explanations as well, because they're in-depth without being useless or boring, they're actually pretty interesting. I think this band could be fucking amazing with a slightly fuller recording and more refinement of their writing. They're great at the laidback emotional stuff, and as soon as they step back and put some effort into transitioning between riffs, or simply slow down the tempos, they immediately become 10 times more powerful... so speed and chaos are not at all their strengths, but they can handle that shit well when they try. So I'd expect bigger and better things from The Assistant in the future. Not bad. (6/10)
Running time - 49:06, Tracks: 8
[Notable tracks: Be Nice to Me, I Had a Ruff Day, Tom Hanks Has a Huge Beard, An Afternoon at the Badlands]
Alone Records - http://www.alonerecords.com

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