THIS BAND!
These guys are just SO good. I can't say I love EVERYTHING they do. But I am finding myself liking more and more of it. I wanna talk about two songs for a second.
First, I want to gush some more about
Teacher, Teacher.
The first set of verses over the mid-tempo, heavy stuff is really cool. I love how Tatiana uses a very hip-hop delivery on the first part up to :35. Then that awesome contrast where the tempo stays the same, but the riff and drumming get busier, and more percussive, mirroring her shift into her fry scream voice. And it's interesting to hear her use the fry in still basically that hip-hop style. They are a band of extremes, and they show that by building an interesting contrast in just the first 1:07 or so of the song.
Then we go into the second verse, which, to me, is one of the coolest things in the entire song, where Tatiana starts again singing clean, but switches to her fry for select words, and that whole verse just builds in intensity up until the chorus at 1:35. I have listened to a LOT of reaction videos for this song. But one thing I have not heard mentioned is the intensity of the extremely low growl on the very last word of that verse. INTENSE! That is Chuck Billy range and power right there.
That short little bridge riff leading into the chorus is awesome. And the chorus itself is sublime. I love that they repeat it here and build it in intensity for emphasis on the "because your teachers may be fools too" line. Then they further punch it home with the intense blast-beat bridge. And I have to pause for a second to address the drumming here. I don't listen to a ton of stuff with blast beats. But I have listened to enough to have heard them done well and to have heard them done not so well. And I have heard them work in a song and not work in a song. For a lot of drummers, when they are about to go into a blast beat, they will need to back off the groove briefly to kind of set up for the blast beat, and when they are doing it, you can tell they are really working hard to keep it together. Not the case here. It is incredible how quickly an fluidly Vlad movies in and out of them. 2:25-2:29 is an incredibly intense showcase of what a talented drummer he is, going back and forth between some amazing fills and blast beats, and sounding like he is doing it effortlessly. And then the perfect transition back into the verse at 2:30 without, er, losing a beat...
Then another cool pair of verses that, again, contrast a mostly clean verse followed by a more intense screamy verse. They orchestrate and build intensity in very clever ways. There are also, again, some very creative drum fills and accents. Sometimes, Vlad goes for a full-on, complex fill. Sometimes, it is as simple as a well-timed bell hit. But it all works so well for the song.
Nothing much to say about the second chorus at 3:25 that I haven't already said. It's great. And then followed by that softer breakdown at 3:55... They at first dial the song ALL the way down. Some REALLY tasty bass work in this section that highlights Eugene's creativity. There are other parts of the song that do that as well, but it is more noticeable here. But what isn't as obvious on the first few listens (or wasn't to me anyway) is how often the bass actually takes the lead, with the guitar playing the roll of holding down the rythm. Their use of this technique is pretty unique, IMO. Anyhow, this whole section again just has some incredible buildup until the fade out and extended silence...until the fake-out ending.
I just love this song.
I think I mentioned not liking
Judgment and Punishment earlier in the thread. I have listened a few more times, and my opinion has softened
somewhat. There are definitely parts of the song I enjoy. I actually think the reggae parts are pretty cool. And the really heavy parts are fine. But then there are a couple of parts that I just...well, I guess I don't get what they are trying to do, and it doesn't sound good to me. Like the part at 1:11 where the lead and rythm sections sound out of sync. It is just too jarring a contrast for me, and I don't understand what they were trying to do. It sounds...amusical, for lack of a better term. Dunno if anyone can maybe break it down for me and explain what is going on and why it works. But there's just too much in this song that feels jarring to the point that I don't find myself enjoying it.
That said, again, I am really digging most of what I hear from this band. I need to check out Macro. And I hope they swing by my neck of the woods at some point so I can catch a show.