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Glassjaw
Worship
and Tribute
Warner Brothers Records
Music Head Rating:
 
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Trying
to create something that is both sonically lush and thunderously
loud can be a recipe for disaster. Limp Bizkit, Metallica,
Korn. They’ve all tried it at some point in their careers
and they’ve all failed…at times, miserably (yes you Mr. Durst.)
Glassjaw got it right. Actually, Glassjaw got it right like
few bands have in the past couple of years. The five-piece
alt-rock band’s sophomore release Worship and Tribute is an
amalgamation of post-harcore angst, densely layered soulfullness
and lyrics drawn right from vocalist Daryl Palumbo’s uneasy mind.
Deftly alternating between fierce guitar-driven rants
(“Tip Your Bartender,” “Cosmopolitan Bloodloss”) and dreamlike
expositions (“Must’ve Run All Day,” “Trailer Park Jesus,”)
Worship achieves what every classic album should: it never
lets the listener’s attention waver. Throughout the album,
guitarists Justin Beck and Todd Weinstock alternate crushing power
chords with ambient intricacies, while drummer Larry Gorman and
bassist Dave Allen provide a pummeling backdrop. Palumbo
provides vivid lyrical depictions of a life full of trauma and
contemplation. Long-suffering from the intestinal ailment
Crohn’s disease and a wicked assortment of failed relationships,
Palumbo is never at a loss for inspiration.
After the successful collaboration on 2000’s
Everything You Wanted to Know About Silence with uber-producer
Ross Robinson (At The Drive-in and Slipknot), the band decided to
channel his expertise once again to help construct their follow-up
album. Palumbo sums up the influence Robinson has on the
recording process thusly: “Ross gets into your head and makes you
talk about everything in a song. If you feel like you don’t want
to talk about it and you do not want to “get into” that one part,
that’s the absolute point at which he makes you talk.”
Toward the culmination of “Two Tabs of Mescaline,”
Palumbo laments, “My Turkish prison is knowing I fit in.” With
this genre-blurring release under their belt, I don’t think
Glassjaw has anything to worry about.
-Wade
Peters
Links: www.glassjaw.com
www.warnerbrothersrecords.com |
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Goldfinger
Open
Your Eyes
Jive Records
Music Head Rating:
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Open
Your Eyes is
Goldfinger's first politically charged album, taking shots at the meat industry,
MTV, alpha male Ted Nugent and Jennifer Lopez. It is also their first CD
since guitarist Charlie Paulson left after seven years. Guitarist Brian
Arthur joins frontman John Feldmann, bassist Kelly Lemieux and drummer Darrin
Pfeiffer, who have played together since 1994.
The album starts off strong, with engaging pop punk
guitar riffs in the song "Spokesman," which lashes out at MTV and popular music
by saying, "What happened to integrity / I don't see it on MTV / all I see is
choreography / and I'll never be a dancer." The title song "Open Your
Eyes" follows with a heavy punk sound and sharper edge than the rest of the
album. It also comes with a message—the vegan views of John Feldmann.
Meat eaters may be turned off by this song, but don't be discouraged: there are
still some top quality meat-neutral songs. For instance, "Decision,” which
shows the influence the band Mest has had on its friend and occasional touring
partner Goldfinger. It ultimately sounds like a Mest song that Goldfinger
covered.
After the first four songs, the album settles down, and
the intensity drops. Although the songs are catchy, they have a similar
sound; for example, the songs "Tell Me", "January", and "Youth" fall off with an
unfulfilling climax, much like the song “Spank Bank.” The energy picks up
momentarily with "Happy" and the simple yet ingenious song "Woodchuck," which
includes the tongue-twisting lyrics, "How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a
woodchuck could chuck wood." Finally, the album ends on a high note with
the energy-infusing song "Radio" and the alpha male hating, J. Lo trashing song
"FTN", which stands for F*** Ted Nugent.
Overall, this is another in a line of great CDs by the
band. But what makes the album stand out is it has something to say. These
songs aren’t just about love or love gone wrong. Goldfinger has expanded
their subject matter to make social and political statements. These aren’t
just a bunch of silly little punk songs.
-Edward
Vassallo
Links: www.goldfingermusic.com
www.jiverecords.com |
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Greenwheel
Soma Holiday
Island Records
Music Head Rating:
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Morphing the music of other bands should hardly be a requisite
talent for a newly signed band. However, familiarity can be
very convivial to listeners unwelcome to different genres of
music.
In the 12 years of grunge rock’s life, the big names
were all followed by a few bands who sounded just like them.
Pearl Jam unfortunately spawned Creed. Rage Against the
Machine unfortunately spawned Limp Bizkit. Too many bands
spawned Greenwheel.
In June, Greenwheel launched what should be a short
career with their debut album, Soma Holiday. Here’s a
list of bands one will hear in every song: Incubus, Creed, Live,
Nickelback, and a whole lotta Fuel.
Melodic ballads dominate the entire album, and
Greenwheel doesn’t waste any time in showing us their best
material. The album’s opener, “Shelter,” is a radio-ready
gem. Following modern rock’s standard soft-loud-soft
formula, each refrain kicks the song higher into ascension without
being overly dramatic, á la Creed. Before the song’s bridge,
guitarists Andrew Dwiggins and Marc Wanniger capture the amazing
serenity of dolphin-cry feedback wailing underneath some driving
power chords.
Unfortunately, that is the album’s only highlight.
Lyrically, most songs are about being yourself, yada
yada yada. But musically, Soma Holiday’s murky and droning
tones do not mesh with its meaning. It’s becoming a
hypocritical cliché plaguing emerging bands—they all talk about
finding identity among your peers while replicating bands topping
modern rock charts.
Melodies dance around the chorus of “Dim Halo,” an
amalgamation of Fuel’s “Bittersweet” and “Sunburn.” The
ghost of seething Live vocalist Ed Kowalczyk is resurrected for
the entirety of “Strong” and creeps back into others not being
haunted by Brett Scallion’s ghoul.
When played live, there is not much a crowd can do with
the music on Soma Holiday. Predictable riffs lap over
predictable melodies, and both overwhelm the shallow bass lines
Brandon Armstrong throws down on many tracks.
Greenwheel is nothing original—which
can work for some people. But in this reviewer’s eyes, bands
like Greenwheel detract from the success and popularity of
larger-scale acts like Fuel, who took much time and practice to
copy someone else’s sound. -Mike
Caggeso
Links:
www.greenwheel.net
www.islandrecords.com |
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