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What a beautiful sort of anarchy is represented on this album.
America is Waiting's energy is ferocious and addictive
with an anti-music approach to existence. Throwing normal convention
in the face of the masses, they attack songs with a melee approach,
an every-man for himself, come-to-jesus that bends musical relativity
to the breaking point but goes beyond. Every instrument seems
hell-bent on producing a sort of cacophony, but is masterfully
put together into an exquisite blended vision of what music
should be.
The shear intensity is what catches me the most, even in a
subdued mode such as "The Virus Is Airborne", the
undercurrent is pure movement. Unlike a lot of angst filled
early nineties attempts to see the future, these gentleman coax
the material with a loving hand, a heavily calloused, but loving
hand. There is no angst here, just pure pathos. I hesitate to
call it emotion for those who would confuse my description with
emo, it isn't, but rather it is closer to the hardcore of bygone
days, pure, with no qualms with about its humble existence.
There are a lot of reasons I like this band. They have a subtle
yet heavy-handed willingness to play with the musical medium.
They feel like a unit, a single entity that doesn't play favorites
to specific instruments, and more over, every individual bows
to the greater whole. They know how to use noise, without making
it an annoyance. They sound discordant while maintaining beautiful
melodies. They just are.
The drumming is superb; it is filled with a rage, but is constrained
enough to disappear in a heart beat and reappear picking up
the ebb and flow of the songs like in "Nothing Justifies".
The bass is so close to being perfect- it loses a little in
the production, but there are some awesome moments of clarity
as it moves around the drums. Bass and drums should be inseparable,
one supporting the other, and you can tell that this bass player
understands that. The guitars are nicely in sync. They take
the approach that Fugazi trademarked; simple definitive
lines that have nothing to do with each other, and yet are perfectly
fit into a coherent guise. And separately, alternating single
note lines with complex movement by the other, as in "Cut
You", simply awe-inspiring. Vocals play well into the ultimate
mix, taking the ups and downs that the songs take, letting the
song be at points, and being the song at others. It is a brilliant
mix.
This album isn't for everyone though. It isn't for the faint
of heart, and it isn't for those people who have to constantly
ask, "What's going on?" But for the rest of you who
like movement in music, and like to be challenged on that level,
I have something special for you. You know who you are, you
know who you're not.
Chaos reigns supreme, long live the king.
-bishop
Track listing:
1) Primate Chow
2) Sympathy for Rome
3) Nothing Justifies
4) The Virus is Airborne
5) Cut You
6) Guilty as Charged
7) Intravenous Genius
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