Year in Review - The Releases of 2012 (May-August) PART II

           I think I'm going to shift my original plan to look at the year in quarters to in thirds, because god-DAMN this summer had a lot of releases.  In any case, here is the second part of the summer musical repertoire. With Warped (mostly) behind us, the remainder of the summer was filled with a plethora of varied releases. The worst is done - Abandon All Ships' summer release Infamous was covered last week, so let's hop right on in.

10. The Contortionist - Intrinsic

          Bringing their own sound to progressive metal - one that, namely, isn't afraid to go 'soft' with nebulous guitar portions, Indiana's the Contortionist returned with their second studio album in July with Intrinsic - an almost chill, progg-y romp that, while it might be a lot more subdued than Veil of Maya, is nevertheless some of the BEST studying music I've ever heard. In a way, Intrinsic doesn't sound like metal - there is distortion here and there, but the entire album has a mythical, airy feel to it (and the xylophones on 'Feedback Loop' certainly add to it). But that's not to say it's all synths and clean guitars - 'Causality' is a rhythmic, distorted mosh pit of a song, but even that's temporary. Bottom line: Intrinsic is a great example that not all metal is the same, and as I've said before, putting it on in the library is a great way to focus.

11. Passion Pit - Gossamer

       Passion Pit as a band are actually from my neck of the woods - Cambridge, Mass. Huh.

       If it's not abundantly clear from this blog, I don't tend to deviate very far from my heavy roots - I was raised on Led Zep and the Clash, and frankly find most electronic or indie rock phenomenally boring. The exception to the rule is this summer's release of Gossamer from Passion Pit. Holy moley is this an interesting album. I originally heard the record when my girlfriend played 'Take a Walk' and damn if I'm not a sucker for drum&bass or electropop now and then. There's something simple and charming in this record that you just don't find in a hardcore or metal album. Maybe it's the way Michael Angelakos whimsically cries 'I get carried away!' on the eponymous track, or the upbeat feel and almost infectious happiness the instrumentals seem to carry. Whatever it is, this is one of the most fun releases of the year - one that plays like Foster the People without the latter's desperate attempt to sound indie.

12. Glass Cloud - The Royal Thousand 

       At first glance, Glass Cloud sounds like a bizarre idea - the ex-vocalist of Of Mice & Men and the unrestricted 8-string fury of the Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza? Yet, despite the end of the latter project, Glass Cloud has been a wildly successful idea. The band was cheered and extremely well-received at Scream It Like You Mean It this summer without even having their album, the Royal Thousand, released. Most genre fusions are a mixed bag - look at how well dubstep and metalcore wound up. Nevertheless, extreme metal and post-hardcore go well together, as evidenced by 'Ivy and Wine', the record's heaviest hitter - a blistering, epic song that molds the melodic with Josh Travis' signature rapid riffwork. 'If He Dies He Dies' yields to the softer side of things, but goes to show that 8-strings aren't just for metal. To conclude, the Royal Thousand is a great album, alternatively heavy and...less-heavy. 

12. Pierce the Veil - Collide with the Sky

        The first post I had on my blog was about this album, funnily enough. Time passes quickly...huh. Pierce the Veil's Collide with the Sky is an example of conscious effort applied to experimentation. It took me a while, but this is probably the band's best release so far. The post-hardcore troupe from Sacramento fell a little flat with Selfish Machines, which was criticized for its repetitive nature and cringe-worthy lyrics, but returned swinging with Collide in late July. At their core, PTV are still a relatively scene band, but that doesn't mean they have to be terrible. Collide is a great example of variety done right - there's only one terrible love song ('One Hundred Sleepless Nights'), and the record hits its stride in the later half. 'Hold on 'til May', 'The First Punch', and 'I'm Low on Gas and you Need a Jacket' are phenomenal songs. The emotion that pours out of Vic Fuentes' voice and the band's instrumentals is a rare thing indeed. Back in July, I called the single 'King for a Day' as the album's strongest suite, and cited the rest of the album as 'redundant'. Re-listening today, I can't help but see that as completely wrong.

13. The Word Alive - Life Cycles

         I can't find anything to say about this album. It's decent, the guitarwork is great and technical, but otherwise it failed to leave a lasting impression. This is the Word Alive's longest release yet - fifteen songs of electro-studded breakdowns, and while lyrically it covers a scope of topics - the armed forces, drug abuse, and the typical metalcore unrequited love ballad - some lines fall hilariously flat ("Finding out feeling isn't easy!" on 'Entirety' springs to mind). There isn't much in the way of experimentation on this - the terminal track 'Astral Plane' begins quietly and seems to be an acoustic song, but then jumps back on the bandwagon, even remembering a breakdown to boot. While Life Cycles doesn't quite beat the dead horse as much as other metalcore albums, it doesn't totally succeed in being very noteworthy either.

14. Sleeping with Sirens - If You Were a Movie, This Would Be Your Soundtrack
         
            If you've been reading my blog, first of all, bless your soul, second of all, you know I have a special place in my heart for hating the idiotically cliche Florida band Sleeping with Sirens. It's no secret that the members besides frontman Kellin Quinn are just accessories - their band is named after him. Quinn is a countertenor - he can hit the high notes usually reserved for sopranos and female singers, an interesting talent that in the field of post-hardcore - a genre defined by high vocals - is utterly irrelevant. In any case, the band released their incredibly long-titled acoustic EP If You Were a Movie, This Would Be Your Soundtrack this summer during the midst of their fifteen minutes of fame on Warped Tour. As I've said before, this is actually a fairly soothing listen - Quinn's voice is much better suited to the quiet crooning it does on the EP than the juevenille shrieks we get to hear on record. But even a great voice couldn't save the Movie from the fact that it's every acoustic stereotype rolled into one - (1) douchey singer, (2) lamentably simple guitar, (3) sappy love ballad upon sappy love ballad. To conclude, if you don't listen to the words, Movie is a decent listen.

16. Xibalba - Hasta la Muerte

        Hardcore has become a hard beast to define. As the old stalwarts like Terror and Hatebreed putter on, and derivatives flood the musical consciousness, what 'true' hardcore is and isn't has been brought up to question. Obviously the days of Agnostic Front and Madball are behind us, and bands emulating those styles will find success more difficult. But straight out of California comes Xibalba, proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that hardcore is not dead and this is what it is. With a bone-crunching, ruinous simplicity that gets your heart racing as fast as the drums on 'Soledad'. Hasta La Muerte is fury at its simplest and most animalistic. There's no space for bullshit and pizzazz - Xibalba's raw energy leaves no room for it.

17. Obey the Brave - Young Blood

          In 2010, Montreal deathcore titan Despised Icon disbanded, leaving behind a legacy in the genre as fans donned snapbacks and basketball shorts to emulate frontman Alex Erian. The resulting genre, which has been colloquially dubbed 'brocore', now includes large-scale bands like Emmure and Whitechapel. But, in any case, Erian teamed up with local Montreal band Blind Witness' bassist Miguel Lepage to form the metalcore outfit Obey the Brave. Without even a single song out, the project's Facebook page accrued thousands of likes, culminating in the release of their EP in May entitled Ups and Downs, a rough draft for August's Young Blood. The released product is a marvel of Despised Icon staples (blast beats and breakdowns), and strangely positive lyrics. That's not to say that it's smooth sailing - Young Blood's optimism, while groundbreaking for a metal band, gets grating just because of how happy it is - 'Unstoppable' in particular combines heavy guitars with upbeat lyrics about 'party time'. Aside from the lyrics, however, the album is an intense slog through what promises to be a ridiculous live band.