Hey readers!
Sorry that Idiot in Remission fell quiet again. After a mixture of finals, the flu (in May, no less), pink-eye, and one hell of a job hunt, I am now back in Massachusetts for the summer. For this reason, I haven't been able to update the blog as often as I'd like. But now that I'm back, and unemployed (for the time being), I'm going to try and stick to a schedule. I'll be debuting a new blog feature tomorrow, I think it'll be a lot of fun.
- I don't like Of Mice & Men or Sleeping with Sirens.
- I am what many would call an August Burns Red fanboy.
The new album is entitled Rescue and Restore, and the band recently revealed the album artwork and a new song ('Fault Line'). The result was a crashed server as thousands of fans converged on Solid State Record's website to hear the news. To say ABR doesn't have a devoted following (the band rivals pop punk giants A Day to Remember in terms of sheer size and notoriety) is a flat out lie.
I got into August Burns Red in middle school, with the release of their sophomore explosion Messengers. The low rumble of Jake Luhrs is the reason I can now tolerate unclean vocals, and the stacatto, punishing breakdowns are what put me on the path to discovering metalcore in all its shades and hues. The band has continuously evolved with each release - moving away from typical metalcore accoutrements and blazing their own path emblazoned with post-rock and math metal influences. Guitarist JB Brubaker is credited with saying 'metalcore is no longer an interesting genre' a few months ago, slamming the swoopy-haired, breakdown-centric wave of tween music that has oversaturated the genre.
In 2011, ABR put out their new album Leveler - itself an evolution of 2009's Constellations. The melodic soundscapes and heart-throbbing pace of 'Existence' found themselves improved upon as the band drew upon influences like Explosions in the Sky - resulting in an utterly unique sound that other bands have attempted to duplicate.
'Internal Cannon', the second song on Leveler, presented fans with a dilemma as they came down from the anthemic, triumphant sound of 'Empire'. ABR mainstays are present - a brutal breakdown blisters through not even thirty seconds in, but around the 1:00 mark we find our first stutter - a salsa break. Never to be deterred, the band not only has a sustained flamenco solo later in the song, but molds the rhythm and sound of the acoustic guitar into the melody of the song. This innovation, heightened by the blistering emotion with which Luhrs conveys his message and the precise, percussive wall-of-sound out of drummer Matt Greiner, makes the entire song a thrill ride. There are no choruses, no bridges, no signs of traditional song structure.
On Constellations, 'Marianas Trench' opens with a mournful, clean guitar passage, devoid of backing by both drums, bass, and vocals. Slowly but surely, the song builds tension as first a second guitar kicks in, then drums, then the bass, and finally vocals as the song begins its mammoth attack. The band does the same with the eerie introduction of 'White Washed' on the same album.
Perhaps the band's most striking ability is, thus, the presence their sound has. The instruments meld together into a sonic mass that assaults the listener, forming an intangible cocoon as we are helplessly dragged along through a myriad of different guitar passages, desperately trying to count the beats as Greiner destroys his drumset. ABR are undeniably as metalcore as bands come, but its this ability to give their sound a presence that puts them ahead of most other bands in the genre - by contrast, bands like Memphis May Fire or Motionless in White feel confined, as though their sound is straining against invisible walls that ABR long ago broke down.
So, then, now that we've established that I'm an absolute ABR fanboy, what about the new song? 'Fault Line' came out about a week and a half ago and, as I said before, crashed Solid State's website as fans flooded the servers. And, to be honest...it's going to need to grow on me.
And yet, something about 'Fault Line' sounds almost too familiar. The song itself wouldn't be too out of place on an earlier ABR album, but the post-rock influences aren't as tangible and atmospheric as they were on previous releases. On the other hand, Jake Luhrs' vocals have improved in quality astronomically - he rivals Phil Bozeman in terms of how easy it is to understand his uncleans. But the lyrics to 'Fault Line' are, in a word, quite religious. 'Without you, I'm worthless, yes!', 'proclaim your love'!
ABR have made no secret of the fact that they're quite observant Christians, but in the past they've usually indulged that side only a few times per album, and only for a single line. 'Fault Line' basically talks about turning to God as an escape from pain, which is a noble concept indeed, but the lyrics are quite a bit more preachy than what I'm used to from the band.
That being said, the band has certainly not lost its ability to create a presence with sound. 'Fault Line' fills the room with its melody, rhythm, and the masterful layering we're used to at this point. It's a massive song, but in my opinion a step down from Leveler or Constellations-era fare. Is it comparable to their earlier material? Yes, and no. On the one hand, the guitar passages are far too complex and noodly for 'Fault Line' to be on Messengers or Thrill Seeker, but on the other hand, if you killed the atmospheric effects, it would sound a bit like 'The Balance'.
To recapitulate, I'm not the biggest fan of 'Fault Line' so far. What Rescue and Restore does in its remaining ten or so songs is exciting to say the least, and I'm eagerly looking forward to the release.
Rescue and Restore comes out June 26th on Solid State Records.
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