Reviews

Alexisonfire

Crisis

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Review Date: 2006-09-09

I had a phase once, one which revolved heavily around love for screamo music. I was into the energy level of the music, and the yelling and screaming never seemed to bother me as long as the instrumental music was something I could rock the fuck out to. So, to be honest, I just ignored the screaming element -- mostly because who the hell could ever understand what the screamer was saying?

I just recently found out that Alexisonfire will be in London on my birthday, but what the hell do I care? I saw them for four dollars once and it was the bargain of the century; however, I'm pretty sure you can't negotiate with the John Labatt Centre so I'm going to go ahead and just say that I won't be in attendance.

One thing that is awesome about Alexisonfire is that the band members do know how to play some pretty badass music, but it’s not only that -- the lead singers Dallas Green and George Pettit are pretty good at singing. Dallas’s singing is particularly solid on, "This Could Be Anywhere In The World." I like this song; it’s got a nice old-school Alexisonfire sound to it that reminds me a lot of the first disc, the one that I really loved by them. The singing is nice because there are two of them, and they are talented as well. Because they sing in a punk environment I would think that they wouldn't want vocals this well-sung, but I think it adds a different element to the music when the singing is well done and then just mutates into screaming partway through its elegance.

The first track, "Drunks, Lovers, Sinners, And Saints," is decent. I think they covered all the bases in the title of this track; I'm at least two out of the four, and neither are good. This song has a decent amount of screaming for all of you that want to hear that on this album. I, however, do not wish for this screaming to continue at this frequency. The weirdest thing is that the song ends abruptly with a strange guitar sound and then just turns into the second song.

"Boiled Frogs" has an amazing guitar riff; it’s just cranking away throughout the entire track. The vocals are split between George Pettit screaming and the other guy singing his sections. I have to be honest, this track is one of the best. There’s a minimal amount of screaming on the track, and by now you can tell that isn’t a coincidence.

(I suppose you probably understand that I don't really give a fuck about screaming anymore – it’s nothing to me. I've heard it all before and now I'm just sick of it.)

The one thing that I think Alexisonfire has done to separate themselves in their genre is make sure that all of their songs do not sound absolutely the same. Also, for whatever reason, when Pettit screams I can somewhat make it out. It’s like I have heard him enough that I almost can understand what he says.

"You Burn First" starts with singing that talks about coming to someone if there is a fire. However, it’s a metaphor about love; the singing is just dark and it sounds like the person is hurt, or has been hurt. It’s probably just an interesting filter that they put on the mic while he was singing. At this point the music has all been build up. Every once and a while they will pause the music and make it seem like they are going to break into something huge, but that never really happens until about the two-minute mark. This song is probably my favourite one on the whole album. I like the atmosphere, the vocals are awesome and it’s catchy, and that’s all I really need to like a track.

"We Are The End" starts with singing something to the rock music and then he just breaks into screaming for a spell. Well I shouldn't say a spell, as he screams for quite some time. There is a neat layering effect vocals as half-screaming and half-normal. Regardless, this is a pretty sweet song; again, it doesn't sound like all the other tracks, which is a good thing because I think that most screamo all tend to blend together.

"Keep It On Wax" is something that I don't understand. I think it’s a saying but it’s hard to tell from some of the crude lyrics you get with Dallas and his screaming. This song is okay, mostly because of the music -- the bass is unreal on this one; he is going bezerk, which is totally amazing. The guitar is okay, but the drums are wicked throughout the whole song. The good thing about the members of Alexisonfire is that they could have played any sort of music that they wanted, but they chose screamo.

Album closer "Rough Hands" is the longest song, clocking in at just over five-and-a-half minutes. That’s acceptable, I suppose, since almost every other song is under four minutes. The song is slow, and it’s not really my type of Alexisonfire track. At least the vocals are well done. One thing that I don't care for is the amount of emotions wrapped up in this song; actually, most of the music is pretty emotion-laced. I suppose screamo means that there’s something emo about it, and emo is just the most horrible thing to puke its way onto the music scene.

Tracks to Steal: "Boiled Frogs," "This Could Be Anywhere In The World," "You Burn First," We Are The End," "Keep It On Wax," "Crisis"

What'd I think of Alexisonfire’s newest? Are they still doing enough different things with the music to keep my interest?

Score: 7.8

I think they are slipping a bit, but this disc is definitely good to me. What I wish I could have heard was a bit more variety in the sound. The screaming really handicaps everything because usually the song has to be going at a good clip for it to fit in.

- Brandon