Okay, before I start, does anyone know how to copy or save album covers off of last.fm? It's the only place that had the cover to this and I couldn't use it...
Yay it's EP review time!, 'cause who really has the attention span to listen to full albums anyway? Stand Before The Firing Squad pack enough into 4 songs that an entire album isn't even necessary. In case you weren't able to figure it out from their band name, these guys are really, really heavy. More specifically, they play that style of controlled chaos so appropriately dubbed Mathcore. Electric Narcoleptic is the band's Debut release, and they really hit the ground running. Electric Narcoleptic clocks in just under 10 minutes long, 10 minutes of nonstop, in your face, lightning fast brutality. A few years ago I heard a saying that I think holds true for bands of all genres:"First, you define your genre, then you defy it." Virtually every band, especially in the mathcore scene, seems to abide by this rule. A Bands first release is a chance to show off what they can do, to strut their stuff so to speak. They follow the structure of their genre so that they can be easily comparable to those that came before them, this way listeners can easily judge if a band is worth their time or not. If a band is only mediocre when it comes to what has already been done by other bands, then you can't really expect much else from them. Those that successfully 'defined' their genre will inevitably begin to incorporate different influences into their music, and before you know it they begin to branch off from their base genre, they 'defy' it so to speak. HORSE the Band and Minus the Bear are two perfect examples of this, both of them started off by seemingly perfecting their respective genres, and every release since then has shown clear and distinguishable growth from the release before it. On the other end of the spectrum, there are also those bands that are purebreads when it comes to their genres. Bands like Everytime I Die and Converge have spent their entire career's perfecting hardcore, rather than altering their sound they release album after album, each structurally very similar to eachother but each so good in their own right that their sound doesn't get stale or tired. It takes a whole different kind of creativity to be able to do the same thing for a decade and never have it get old. Most bands fall somewhere in the middle of those two extremes, but uh, yeah, I'm getting way off topic, I gotta finish this review.(and these EP reviews were supposed to be the quick ones >_>) This EP follows the definition of mathcore to a tee. Let's review chapter by chapter: nonstop intensity start to finish? Check. Atypical rhythms? Check. Changing time signatures up mid song just to switch back almost immediately? Check. Oddly timed breakdowns? Check plus. Yep Stand Before The Firing Squad passes their test with flying colors. The only time you're ears'll get a chance to rest is during the occasional movie quote, which I'm pretty sure are all from Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas. Now that I think about it, Why hasn't anyone used Fear and Loathing quotes before? Hunter S. Thompson was like mathcore personified…
No comments:
Post a Comment