Alexisonfire "s/t" CD
[Equal Vision]
Ahhh, yes. The multiple word band name with no spaces. Is it "alex is on fire"? Is it "alexis on fire"? The world may never know... the world may never care. What it is for sure is "screamo" from Canada. Lots of screaming, some singing, screaming and singing at the same time. Lots of distortion, some jangly guitars, distorted and jangly guitars at the same time. And the writing incorporates all of that as well as churning heavy breaks, pseudo technical metal riffs, melodic chord progressions, lots of interaction between dual guitars and bass, etc. It's not the most original thing in the world, I mean, parts of this sound somewhat similar to Thursday and some of those other bands that are all hot shit these days for whatever reason, but I actually enjoy this for the most part. "Polaroids of Polar Bears" is one of the only longer tracks (over five minutes) that sort of works, starting with a lush intro of clean guitars (some of which are reversed) before breaking into a fast and energetic burst of power chords and tight picking patterns, but it still gets tiresome by its end. I find shorter tracks like the staggered rhythms and melodies of "Waterwings (And Other Poolside Fashion Faux Pas)" to be far more effective. The sound? Well, the vocals are too loud. That jumps out at me right away. It's distracting since the vocals and drums have the most definition, so they tend to stand out, while the bass falls off to the side and guitars are slightly dirty. I don't mind the dirtiness of the guitars so much, and the drums actually tend to sound really dense, but the mix needs evening out. Some of the songs have both more low-end and a brighter midrange, so those sound more effective, but the minor inconsistencies make little difference in the grand scheme of things. There's a CD-Rom video for "Pulmonary Archery" that's not bad in most respects. It's presented well on the CD-Rom interface, and the video is incredibly professionally shot. The footage is crisp as shit and really warm. It's basically the band performing in some rich ass looking house with a shitload of amps in a dimly lit room. It's nice because of its professionalism, but the band's seizure-esque emo antics are a little much for me to take, what with all the jolting feet, stomping, twitching, hair thrashing, arm swinging, instrument shaking, etc. It's just a little too mapped out and typical of all of these types of bands, and that stuff has always created in me the urge to vomit. But the video does look great, I'll give 'em that. The disc comes in a digipack with some photos of two schoolgirls fighting, and one of them is even trying to stab the other with a switchblade! Gasp! I don't know what that's all about, but whatever. The panels fold out to show the lyrics, which I find to be rather atrocious. Some are more serious than others, but when they get all whacky and "artsy", if you can even call it that, they tend to go off the deep end. "Raped by my childhood? What the hell do I know about rape anyway? Well, I guess its fun to pretend. Sorry. Just a thought that occurred when I wasn't quite awake enough to dismiss it. It's so easy to cheapen an event by pretending it happened. Boring clichéd self-destruction... I think I should start doing aerobics..." This feels like a premature full-length to me. A few of these songs would've made a great EP, but the writing needs touching up and the recording needs to be a little cleaner to pull this off for 40+ minutes. Maybe next time. (6/10)
Running time - 42:17, Tracks: 11
[Notable tracks: Waterwings (And Other Poolside Fashion Faux Pas), The Kennedy Curse, Pulmonary Archery]
Equal Vision Records - http://www.equalvision.com

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