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Here’s a good controversial band to start a thread about!
I’ve been into these guys since ‘03 or so when the singer in a former band introduced me to them. It was before City Of Evil came out, they were a metalcore band doing metalcore stuff. I was just getting into screaming vocals at the time and heard they had a new album out, so I went and grabbed City Of Evil thinking it’d be more metalcore stuff…..I thought I had the band’s name confused for someone else when I listened, because all I was hearing was crazy ass shred guitars, no screaming, outstanding musicianship and song structures not really present in popular music.
Then the 4th album came out and they went further into the proggier stuff, while also tapping into the more commercial stuff at the same time. Really interesting juxtaposition I found myself enjoying because they were blowing up at the time and self-producing their own material when this would have been an opportune time for a label to put a stranglehold on them. This has only continued through the years.
I don’t love all their songs, but I’ve always felt they had a lot more to offer than what we’ve heard to date. One thing was clear to me from the start and this is probably the most controversial take; they do not give a f*ck what people want or expect from them. They seem to catch a lot of flack for how they dress, that never registered to me because of the musicianship, even if I didn’t dig every song.
Then their last album came out, entirely out of the blue one day. Zero press leading up to it, no one even knew they were working on an album. I don’t think that worked in their favor for album sales, but again, they don’t give a f*ck. It’s a total prog album and in the press they were commenting on how they very intentionally didn’t allow the album to be brickwalled, having Joe Baressi produce and Andy Wallace mix it.
It’s been a few years since their last album, but this just got released about 45 minutes ago and again, they’re demonstrating how much they just want to do what they do. I can’t even put this in a genre, but I can’t wait to hear the rest of this album.
I’ve been into these guys since ‘03 or so when the singer in a former band introduced me to them. It was before City Of Evil came out, they were a metalcore band doing metalcore stuff. I was just getting into screaming vocals at the time and heard they had a new album out, so I went and grabbed City Of Evil thinking it’d be more metalcore stuff…..I thought I had the band’s name confused for someone else when I listened, because all I was hearing was crazy ass shred guitars, no screaming, outstanding musicianship and song structures not really present in popular music.
Then the 4th album came out and they went further into the proggier stuff, while also tapping into the more commercial stuff at the same time. Really interesting juxtaposition I found myself enjoying because they were blowing up at the time and self-producing their own material when this would have been an opportune time for a label to put a stranglehold on them. This has only continued through the years.
I don’t love all their songs, but I’ve always felt they had a lot more to offer than what we’ve heard to date. One thing was clear to me from the start and this is probably the most controversial take; they do not give a f*ck what people want or expect from them. They seem to catch a lot of flack for how they dress, that never registered to me because of the musicianship, even if I didn’t dig every song.
Then their last album came out, entirely out of the blue one day. Zero press leading up to it, no one even knew they were working on an album. I don’t think that worked in their favor for album sales, but again, they don’t give a f*ck. It’s a total prog album and in the press they were commenting on how they very intentionally didn’t allow the album to be brickwalled, having Joe Baressi produce and Andy Wallace mix it.
It’s been a few years since their last album, but this just got released about 45 minutes ago and again, they’re demonstrating how much they just want to do what they do. I can’t even put this in a genre, but I can’t wait to hear the rest of this album.