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Not yet familiar with the bands hosted at Global Domination? Now's definitely the time to check 'em out. And what could be a better place for it than their Myspace-pages? Links below...
Demo(n)s
And This Army: Foe
07/10/06 || Global Domination
This review was written by ex-staffer/cocksmoker Hanging Limbs.
I’ve never been a big fan of any of the following styles: psychedelic, stoner rock, doom, sludge, and whatever they call the stuff Neurosis plays. The slower tempos and relatively relaxed feel just never appealed to me unless the musicianship was astounding or the melodies were incredibly catchy. I was nervous to review this because I’ve never really explored the above styles and didn’t want to sound like a typical music reviewer who had no clue what he was talking about.
Luckily, I happen to be a fan of post-rock and many things indie. And This Army draws as much influence from these genres as the ones mentioned at the start of the review. Their dense sound is very reminiscent of Isis, but catchier, and with more melancholy in the vocals a la A nathema. Other bands that you pick up in And This Army’s sound include Dredg, My Dying Bride, Pink Floyd, Cave In, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and Tool.
Party music this is not. Ballsy and adventurous, this is. Nothing about it plays into current trends in metal or indie rock. Instead, the three boys from Brooklyn have come up with something that demands your full attention and several listens to sink in. Most of the songs consist of doomy, low-end plodding with cathartic vocals. The fuzzed out walls of sound somehow convey a ton of emotion and melody despite the lack of blatant riffage and hookery. Their heavy-hitting emotions give way only to their atmospheric capacity, often having a space-rock feel thanks to the pacing and reverb dials being turned up to 11. The songs fit together nicely and give the disc a sense of unity.
Maybe it is just the slower tempo of the songs, but some of these tracks seem overly long. While the excessive length works in the favor of the anthemic “Blackbeard”, the rather average “Expiration” is too long for its own good at over 8 minutes. Overwriting is often a problem for ambitious bands on early recordings. Some bands smooth this out and refine their writing (Katatonia) while others never learn (Opeth). Not that overwriting is particularly bad, but it can be a distraction unless each idea is stellar (see Emperor’s “With Strength I Burn” or Iron Maiden’s “Seventh Son of a Seventh Son” for how to overwrite like a champ).
Overall, there is some very good music being made in the And This Army camp. They should be able to garner some label interest with this disc and will hopefully make a midget-stomper of a follow-up soon. While their sound may be too light for metalheads and too heavy for indie dorks, I hope the merits of the music will bring them an audience. If they focus and refocus their ideas into more brilliant songs like “Stranglehold” and use the power of the studio to their advantage, And This Army may very well gain the multi-genre appeal they deserve.
- Information
- Released: 2006
- Label: Self-release
- Website: www.andthisarmy.com
- Band
- Brendan McDermott: vocals, guitar
- Andrew Lanza: bass
- Jason Bennett: drums
- Tracklist
- 01. Jezebel
- 02. The Ghost of Johnny’s Pizza
- 03. Expiration
- 04. Blackbeard
- 05. Stranglehold
- 06. Cleopatra’s Needle