Today’s been a double feature with the Word Alive and
Abandon All Ships releasing their new records Life Cycles and Infamous,
respectively. Arizona’s The
Word Alive, whose debut album Deceiver garnered
large-scale praise across the metalcore scene, are currently taking part in the
Warped Tour this year. While I’m incredibly excited for this new album –
especially to hear how they've changed after their lackluster EP Empire -
today I’m going to focus on the underdog of the two – Toronto electrocore group Abandon All Ships. I’ll post a review of Life
Cycles on Thursday.
Electrocore
– the fusion of metalcore and electronic music – is a relatively new beast to
the field. While it does, regrettably, have roots in the embarrassing crabcore
emergence of the early-to-mid-2000s (which garnered unfortunate public
attention during Attack Attack!’s debut), many bands have since taken up
electronic elements into their work, and transformed the style into a fairly
popular, almost mainstream, trend in the metalcore and post-hardcore world.
What
makes it so popular? I’ll admit: I’m a stickler for rhythm, and have always had
a soft spot for drum & bass. It looks like everyone else might, too,
considering the number of hardcore bands that now include synthesizers and
electronic elements. But the real kicker is that most people don’t view it as a
sellout move – large-scale bands like the Devil Wears Prada and We Came as
Romans have had a keyboardist with them since their inception, and are still
regarded as high-profile figures in the metalcore scene. I think that, at its
roots, it puts a refreshing spin on a style of music that has become repetitive
and a little stale. It’s an easy way of adding energy to a song. This is good
in two ways – bands that manage to keep an album interesting without electronic elements (August
Burns Red, Every Time I Die, etc.) inherently become more fun to listen to,
while bands that otherwise would lapse into obscurity get a second chance.
But the
real problem becomes this – what happens when your style becomes too dependent
on electronic elements? When instead of using them as a supplement, you start
using them as a staple? And the answer, quite simply, is Abandon All Ships. The
band’s first release, 2010’s Geeving,
was panned as a repetitive, mindless romp through music that was half dance
floor beats, half hardcore screams. Sadly, this has translated poorly to Infamous’ release today, as Abandon All
Ships stubbornly clings to their Geeving sound
and refuses to rise above mediocrity.
This is
largely fueled by Infamous’ more
liberal take on the ‘electro’ part of ‘electrocore’ – synthwork is never even
remotely subtle. There’s going to be a complete break in most songs – when all
heaviness and guitar vanishes and we get Martin Broda’s autotuned whine melding
with a beat that wouldn’t be out of place on a Pendulum album. Screaming is more sparse, which is unfortunate
because Angelo Aita has quite a nice scream. I’ve said before that contrast is
an important part of music – it keeps the audience on their toes and makes
listening interesting, but AAS has shown that, when taken to an extreme, even
contrast turns sour. While Aita and Broda’s voices by themselves still have a
nice difference tonally, there’s a lyrical jump between them.
Part of
the criticism leveled at Geeving was
that the unclean portions were phenomenally angrier than the clean segments,
which were cringeworthy in their sappiness. Astonishingly enough, this has become even
more of a problem in Infamous. My personal
favorite contender for ‘worst line on the record’ is probably ‘If you don’t
like us, fuck you’, on the second track, ‘Infamous’. Take what Broda is saying
in half of Infamous’ songs, stick it
on a Bruno Mars record, and they wouldn’t be out of place. Lyrics in general are the band’s low point –
they’re clumsily written and make me shake my head at their ridiculousness. Choruses,
like in Geeving, are redundant and,
worst of all, repeated in a few
cases. When done carefully, contrast makes a song very enjoyable, but this is,
quite simply, too much. While it’s
disappointing that things haven’t improved in that department, Infamous heightens the ridiculousness by
attempting to use samples in a few of their songs.
I’m going to say this once – it’s very hard to
sample something tastefully, whether it’s a beat or part of a speech, and it’s
even harder in metal offshoots. When it’s done well, it can send shivers down
my spine. When it’s done poorly, it comes off as a sad attempt to be ‘deep’ or
a cheap way to make a point. Infamous’ use
of samples falls in the latter category as the quality of their lyrics prevents
them from having any sort of meaning. But, quite possibly the silliest addition
to the record is a cameo by Toronto rap duo A-Game on the title track, ‘Infamous’.
The title track is by far the record’s worst, and since it’s so close to the
start, discourages the listener from sticking with the record. Again, the contrast is arresting, and A-Game’s
presence in the song makes no sense and isn’t remotely enjoyable.
Burdened as the record is by their
vocals, instrumentals remain all right. While it’s true that the guitar and
drums are often sidelined to electronic elements, if you don’t mind a
guitar-laden dance break, they aren’t that much of a problem. Riffs, in
general, are average – the one saving feature of the entire record is,
ironically enough, the last song ‘Brothers for Life’, which incorporates
metalcore-y guitar work with Aita taking the lead. Of course, Broda has to have
his clean break, but the majority of the song is unclean. That being said, it’s
a rather generic song, and ends with a completely ridiculous sample.
The record does have an upswing –
it’s rather abysmal at the start, but there’s some hope by the end. Soft, sad
ballad ‘August’ is decent when you forget the fact that AAS is supposed to have
some metal components, and ‘Made of Gold’ is an all right song worth a listen. The
one saving grace of the band, the one thing that has improved, has been that
the beats are far catchier. While this hardly saves the record, it does make it
a little more bearable.
That being said, this was one of
the first albums I’ve listened to that has been difficult to sit through. And I
sat through Emmure. AAS needs to get over their egos and fundamentally change,
or else they are doomed to not only stay mediocre, but get worse. As of right
now, they are a key example of taking things too far, and need to tone
everything down. There’s potential, but they’re not using it. If you’re looking
for decent metalcore with electronic elements, your best bet is to stick with
Woe Is Me, or give the incredibly underrated A Bullet For Pretty Boy a try. I'm even tempted to say Attack Attack! is better in some cases.
I’m seeing AAS this Saturday as
part of the Scream It Like You Mean It! tour. Let’s hope they’re more fun live
than they are in studio.
Listen to 'Brothers for Life' here:
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