i whack off to this review every night.
"You really think these guys can pull it off? I mean, really get people's attention? Do something more than just be painfully average?"
James attempted a reply over the dull roar of rain drops that flew like bullets to the sidewalk and the Doubting Thomas that was, at that moment, running back and forth in my mind screaming, "Not goddamn likely!" We were heading to the Paradox in Seattle's U-District to catch a show whose line-up consisted entirely of math rock doppelgangers. I'd asked him with that same block of fatigued bandwagoneering in mind, dreading every second of sitting through it.
"Yeah, I do," he finally answered, grinning. "Fall of Troy will kill everybody."
I took everything he said in stride given that we were currently paying nine bucks to sit through six bands, all of whom would be playing variations on an 11/8 time signature. God knows what we needed was another math-punk-jam band missing the point and trying to be "different." The problem was never being different, but rather not having any sense of vitality to the music. If I didn't know that he was as sick as I was of knock-off indie rock bands, I would've taken his response as sarcasm.
We'd been discussing the recent output of Seattle's indie circuit, myself having just finished with the Blood Brothers article for Bandoppler magazine's premiere issue. Fall of Troy had come up and of course, the question as to whether or not they were necessary, much less "would they be anything more than mediocre."
I'll be damned if he wasn't right, though. Every complaint I've had about the art punk genre, with the Mars Volta being the favored whipping boy of the day is rendered null with this band.
The immediate and defining element of the band and the album itself is the impeccable and surprisingly risky guitar work which removes it at once from any sort of math rock categorizations.
Thomas Erak is the new Yngwie Malmsteem of indie rock, but instead of relying entirely on speed and precision, which his performance features in spades, he diversifies in ways that most guitarists of his kind normally wouldn't and the band follows suit.
"Whacko Jacko Steals the Elephant Man's Bones" is the album's apex, a staggering five-minute epic that accomplishes more for Yes-influenced punk than the entire track listing of "DeLoused In the Comatorium" combined. Despite the length, no time is wasted on unnecessary jam divergences or mathy bridges -- and the unapologetically fierce way in which the song combines the high-end theatrics of Erak with the raging punk backbone of the song. An entire year's worth of metal and hardcore releases and I've yet to hear a song break apart and completely destroy itself with such ferocity as this one.
Elsewhere on the album, where some groups would opt for clean tone, finger plucking, Erak goes for dirtied up pop hooks, leading to the odd inclusion of one or two hooks that sound as though they were adopted from My Bloody Valentine's "Only Shallow." If their peers go straight for the simple power chord anchored hook to carry their verse, Erak single strings the fuck out of a ridiculously complex hook, never sacrificing the melodic appeal at the expense of increased complexity.
The defining factor, and what keeps him from truly being the Malmsteem of indie rock is that he's never too selfish to deliver on a simple, low-end shattering punk riff. The songs rely entirely on the capitalization of the tension by giving the listener a climax that matches the speed of the chorus or verse with equal energy and intensity and they utilize this build and release wonderfully.
By far one of the most impressive entries into the art punk genre this year, and one hell of a debut on top of it all, Fall of Troy's self-titled epic is near perfect. Already two steps ahead of seasoned veterans of the art punk genre, it'll be interesting to see where they take this sound and if they can keep up this level of song writing.
- john sant
courtesy of http://www.fineprintmag.com/reviews.php?id=350
James attempted a reply over the dull roar of rain drops that flew like bullets to the sidewalk and the Doubting Thomas that was, at that moment, running back and forth in my mind screaming, "Not goddamn likely!" We were heading to the Paradox in Seattle's U-District to catch a show whose line-up consisted entirely of math rock doppelgangers. I'd asked him with that same block of fatigued bandwagoneering in mind, dreading every second of sitting through it.
"Yeah, I do," he finally answered, grinning. "Fall of Troy will kill everybody."
I took everything he said in stride given that we were currently paying nine bucks to sit through six bands, all of whom would be playing variations on an 11/8 time signature. God knows what we needed was another math-punk-jam band missing the point and trying to be "different." The problem was never being different, but rather not having any sense of vitality to the music. If I didn't know that he was as sick as I was of knock-off indie rock bands, I would've taken his response as sarcasm.
We'd been discussing the recent output of Seattle's indie circuit, myself having just finished with the Blood Brothers article for Bandoppler magazine's premiere issue. Fall of Troy had come up and of course, the question as to whether or not they were necessary, much less "would they be anything more than mediocre."
I'll be damned if he wasn't right, though. Every complaint I've had about the art punk genre, with the Mars Volta being the favored whipping boy of the day is rendered null with this band.
The immediate and defining element of the band and the album itself is the impeccable and surprisingly risky guitar work which removes it at once from any sort of math rock categorizations.
Thomas Erak is the new Yngwie Malmsteem of indie rock, but instead of relying entirely on speed and precision, which his performance features in spades, he diversifies in ways that most guitarists of his kind normally wouldn't and the band follows suit.
"Whacko Jacko Steals the Elephant Man's Bones" is the album's apex, a staggering five-minute epic that accomplishes more for Yes-influenced punk than the entire track listing of "DeLoused In the Comatorium" combined. Despite the length, no time is wasted on unnecessary jam divergences or mathy bridges -- and the unapologetically fierce way in which the song combines the high-end theatrics of Erak with the raging punk backbone of the song. An entire year's worth of metal and hardcore releases and I've yet to hear a song break apart and completely destroy itself with such ferocity as this one.
Elsewhere on the album, where some groups would opt for clean tone, finger plucking, Erak goes for dirtied up pop hooks, leading to the odd inclusion of one or two hooks that sound as though they were adopted from My Bloody Valentine's "Only Shallow." If their peers go straight for the simple power chord anchored hook to carry their verse, Erak single strings the fuck out of a ridiculously complex hook, never sacrificing the melodic appeal at the expense of increased complexity.
The defining factor, and what keeps him from truly being the Malmsteem of indie rock is that he's never too selfish to deliver on a simple, low-end shattering punk riff. The songs rely entirely on the capitalization of the tension by giving the listener a climax that matches the speed of the chorus or verse with equal energy and intensity and they utilize this build and release wonderfully.
By far one of the most impressive entries into the art punk genre this year, and one hell of a debut on top of it all, Fall of Troy's self-titled epic is near perfect. Already two steps ahead of seasoned veterans of the art punk genre, it'll be interesting to see where they take this sound and if they can keep up this level of song writing.
- john sant
courtesy of http://www.fineprintmag.com/reviews.php?id=350