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36 Crazyfists

The Tide And Its Takers

Written by: PP on 04/06/2008 03:23:27

36 Crazyfists have always been a band to me that\'s been willing to push the envelope and change their sound throughout their career. They have undergone through some radical changes from album to album, first escaping from the spiraling nu-metal scene, following the times by adding some better musicianship and screaming to their sophomore record, and then jumping straight into the screamo bandwagon with 2006\'s \"Rest Inside The Flames\". Today, the band has seemingly pieced together all the best bits of their career into an album that isn\'t quite a masterpiece, but is very close to being so.

What \"The Tide And Its Takers\" offers the listener is more melody than ever, harsher screams than ever, and finally the kind of guitar work that, at least in my opinion, the band has been lacking to break through to the scenesters across the world. The album opener \"The All Night Lights\" displays this change perfectly, opening with a ripping metalcore hook, followed by the signature bark of singer Brock Lindow, some nu-metallish chord/clean vocal dynamics, and other goodies that you could just as well have found on the latest As I Lay Dying album. As if that wasn\'t enough, the band has re-discovered their ability to write fantastic choruses, as especially \"Absent Are The Saints\" (album highlight by the way), \"We Gave It Hell\" and a few others show on the record. You\'ll be sing-screaming along after the first listen, giving longtime fans songs on the level of classics \"Bloodwork\" and \"Slit Wrist Theory\".

Brock & Co also explore a more theatric and dramatic side to the band on \"Only A Year Or So...\", a partly spoken word song with gloomy, mellow melody supporting on the background. While this is certainly an interesting change on first listen, it lacks any repeat-listen value and pales in comparison to the killer riffs of the rest of the songs. Because let me tell you, \"The Tide And Its Takers\" is all about infectious lead riffs, those curvy, zig-zagging metalcore guitars you know from bands like Bleeding Through or Himsa.

As for the rest of the album, if you\'ve been listening to 36 Crazyfists for the past two albums you know what to expect. Brock\'s explosive bark resonates well in the bleak atmosphere on the record, and his clean vocals are ever so depressive (in a good way!), adding \'that melancholy sound\' to the band\'s arsenal. So in summary, what you\'re getting is vastly improved instrumental work, and more of the same in the vocal department, essentially taking the best parts from every album of their career thus far and combining them together to a screamo/metalcore titan of a record. However, we all know what\'s happening to that scene, so the real question is, is it too late for the band to have discovered its true strength? Not according to me.

Download: We Gave It Hell, Absent Are The Saints
For the fans of: As I Lay Dying, A Static Lullaby, From Autumn To Ashes, Killswitch Engage
Listen: Myspace

Release date 27.05.2008
Ferret Records
Provided by Target ApS