Double bass groove. Some singing. Some screaming. Let’s make this chorus catchy. “Over and over. Feels like we’re stuck on repeat,” sings vocalist Michael “Jag” Jagmin.
These lyrics from “Find A Way,” track 10 off California-metalcore band A Skylit Drive’s new Oct.9 album ASD pretty appropriately describes the modern stereotype so common with the musical genre that these 5 boys hail from. The title of track 6, “Running in Circles,” also seem to summarize what Post-Hardcore bands like A Skylit Drive have been doing in 2015, having crafted records since 2007.
While the Post-Hardcore formula has been a winning formula for close to a decade, A Skylit Drive’s brand of it grows tiresome by 3 quarters into their new effort. However, the fact that ASD can make ASD and sound just like ASD should be noted as uniquely impressive, considering that they lost their long-time rhythm section in Oct.22 of last year.
Bassist/screamer Brian White and drummer Cory La Quay can be heard on Drive’s 2007 EP She Watched the Sky, as well as all of the group’s previous full-length records. Wires and the Concept of Breathing, Adelphia, and Identity on Fire all charted on the Billboard Top 200 and solidified A Skylit Drive as a Van’s Warped tour mainstay.
After White posted an Instagram statement last year describing how he and La Quay’s “passion for our band that once fueled our success” changed and how neither of them “want to lose our love of writing, playing and performing music because our values and ideas are no longer aligned with others,” the remaining members of Drive decided to keep the hustle strong and shortly released an acoustic album, January’s Rise: Ascension. 2015’s ASD features new guitarist/screamer Michael Labelle and drummer Brandon “Rage” Richter.
If there are any lyrical nods to Drive’s departed members track 8 “Symphony of Broken Bones” would be the most obvious one. “You were the light in the dark, you were the end from the start,” Michael “Jag” Jagmin sings. “Like waves in the ocean you bury me. We in this moment depart, replacing all that we are. A Symphony of broken dreams.”
The “dreams” line, apart from being a tad cheesy, doesn’t seem to help the title make sense (swapping out “Dreams” for “Bones”) and a few other track titles like “Bring Me a War”, “Oblivion,” and “I’ll Sleep when I’m Dead” run the risk of coming off a bit cliche’. It’s track 4, “Shock My Heart” that seems to use it’s cheesy title to it’s advantage.
The song has a captivating intro, the verse pulses with a busy bassline and creatively articulated clean guitar parts, then reaches a poppy refrain that seems to make Jagmin an 80’s hair band frontman. The energy is perfect for a group that nailed covering Journey’s classic hit, “Separate Ways” on the Punk Goes Pop Vol. 4 compilation back in 2011. ASD’s “Falling Apart in a (Crow)ded Room” particularly casts singer “Jag” as an effective melodist as well.
Standout track “Shock My Heart” also surprises the average Skylit Drive listener with just a hint of blistering guitar arpeggios around the 2:00 mark right before the bridge arrives. The mid-section of “Self/Less” features some of the usual winding, snake-like dual-guitar playing generally found on A Skylit Drive’s material but leads like on “Shock My Heart”, the quick bursts around 1:30 of “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead,” tease a more classically Metal-driven influence that should have further explored by the band.
ASD is indeed, ASD. There is no doubt that A Skylit Drive’s new self-titled bag of tunes, even with drastic changes in their rhythm section, echoes a sound the group has helped brand for two years short of a decade. The question is whether or not ASD should keep being ASD. In 2015 there is a giant surplus of Metalcore material that exists to satisfy listeners of the genre, and as Drive ventures out on tour with Escape The Fate, Sworn In, Sirens & Sailors, and Myka Relocate on Oct.19, I only implore them to start brainstorming new and fresher songwriting tactics. The members of A Skylit Drive have changed but their sound surprisingly didn’t and it’s time for change. Change is good.
No comments:
Post a Comment