How do you describe our curated album for February, "Whisky-tinged metalcore from upstate NY", or "Gasoline-soaked Texas hardcore.", perhaps we should leave it to the band who used their own description as the basis for the album's cover art, "the sound of two Catholic high-school girls in mid-knife-fight".
Alexisonfire (pronounced 'Alexis on fire') was formed in late 2001 in St Catherines, Ontario after a three-band breakup. George Pettit was playing guitar in a metal band called Condemning Salem, Dallas Green was the lead singer and guitar player in Helicon Blue, (and is also known now for his work as 'City & Colour'), while Wade MacNeil and Chris Steele played in a punk band called Plan 9. All these bands broke up at the same time, and Pettit, Steele, MacNeil and Green recruited drummer Jesse Ingelevics, and thankfully for all our sakes formed Alexisonfire.
Most of the band were still attending high school (except for Green) when 'Alexisonfire' was written. This young quintet had very little money to apply to the creation of their debut album, and word on the street is that the process saw them recording at nine or ten studios all around Toronto chasing free studio time offered by friends.
While the actual creation of the album could be categorized as being amateurish, Alexisonfire's collective songwriting abilities are anything but. On the opening album track ".44 Caliber Love Letter" a two-minute-long instrumental composition with duelling lead guitars begins, this intros intricate repeating riffs shows that the band had some extremely skilled guitarists capable of establishing a scenic mood. However, within twenty seconds of this opening salvo, the listener is confronted with three distinct vocalists using screamed, sung, and shouted vocals to create a warring sonic space which complements each other in a way that doesn't make the abundance of styles seem overwhelming.
The quality of the band's vocal delivery is always of the highest calibre, with Pettit and Green utilizing their differing vocal styles to tremendous effect. Pettit's screams are performed by someone who appears to have no vocal training, or hesitation in destroying his larynx, with his vocal barrage never becoming monotonous or tedious. Meanwhile, Green has a gift for formulating pleasing unblemished vocals with a natural gift allowing him to perform them exactly as imagined. His parts on the album range from near-wailing to barely a whisper, but his tone is completely unmatched by anyone in the genre and allows for a vocal delivery that can only be described as sublime.
Musically Wade MacNeil and Dallas Green's two guitar onslaught proves equally capable of crafting fleet-footed, heavy sections which contrast with subdued, calming, and even soothing moments that are present throughout the album's songs. Intros, outros, and randomly timed interludes fill the album without distracting or taking anything away from the cohesive yet random feel present from start to finish.
"Pulmonary Archery", or the serene, tranquil, almost sedated extended instrumental that opens "Polaroids Of Polar Bears." are segments that ground the chaos surrounding them and create a sense of atmosphere that most bands who have tried to achieve have failed at. Even the ending of "Adelleda", with the instruments individually fading out and slowly giving way to piano, avoids sounding sentimental and instead comes across as genuinely inspirational.
Writing a review for this record is a reviewer's nightmare. There's so much going on, so much good stuff going on, that it's almost impossible to nail down your thoughts. So instead of trying to pin down the magic that made Alexisonfire The Beatles of the post-hardcore sound, its best to just sum the album up as five young dudes doing whatever the fuck they wanted, writing angsty, and explosive turn-of-the-century post-hardcore, alternative rock, emo, and punk. Screaming their heads off and throwing themselves around with reckless abandon.
All the best
Stu
RRC
PS - Our classic album for this month has been called the first rock opera. The Pretty Things. S.F. Sorrow was released in 1968, and the album is structured as a song cycle telling the story of the main character "Sebastian F. Sorrow", from his birth, through love, war, tragedy, madness, and his disillusionment with old age.
The band worked with noted EMI staff producer Norman "Hurricane" Smith (who had engineered earlier Beatles recordings and produced Pink Floyd's The Piper at the Gates of Dawn) and house engineer Peter Mew, Phil May of The Things has emphatically stated that Smith was the only person at EMI who was fully supportive of the project and that his technical expertise was invaluable to the ambitious an experimental sound of the album; May once even referred to Smith as a "sixth member" of the band.