Our Last Night

We Will All Evolve

Written by: DR on 26/05/2010 15:52:45

Once upon a time... well, six years ago, Our Last Night formed - and they had a unique selling point; it wasn't an original sound or an album that was sheer musical brilliance; it was their eleven year old frontman screamer Trevor Wentworth. They released an EP followed by a debut LP. This was enough for them to get signed by Epitah Records. Somewhere between their second album (first release on that label), "The Ghosts Among Us", and now, Trevor has been stricken with puberty. That unique selling point vanished at the sound of testicles dropping. They had to adapt, and they know it with an album title of "We Will All Evolve", their third full-length, and finest to date.

As the "scene" changes, and becomes more and more irrelevant (*insert controversy*), bands have to adapt, or "evolve", to stay relevant to said irrelevance. Over recent years, the use of the breakdown has increased millionfold (I might be hyperbolising slightly). Those years also happen to coincide with the time Our Last Night has remained recording-shy between albums, so the most pressing issue was not whether or not they will include the breakdown at all - it was inevitable they would integrate it to some extent - but how much, and how well, they utilise it. Like other scene attributes such as synth, Our Last Night make astute use of the breakdown without saturating the ears of the listener; they are smart enough not to riddle every song with them for the sake of it - or for the lack of ideas (oh, hey Asking Alexandria), and when they do use them they fit in well within the song and are never drawn out for added "headbangability".

It may not surprise you to hear that their sound, in most other aspects too, is pretty damn "scene", especially the production. Everything is nice and thick, with extra polish - not a single hairline or note out of place. Trevor's screams in particular, though a definite improvement from the sound of him passing bowel movements on "The Ghosts...", sound almost robotic in their attempts at a deep growl; whilst Matthew's clean have a refined wail that's probably slightly too good to be true. However, there's not a band in their field that do not touch up their vocals to some extent, so if you're still reading you're unlikely to be fazed by it.

What separates Our Last Night from most of the pack is that they are, quite simply, now better than them, and have matured into damn fine songwriters and musicians. The one who makes the greatest leap of quality from "The Ghosts..." to "...Evolve" is Matt Wentworth. On previous releases he showed ambition with his metaphors, ideas and turns of phrase, but now he's come into his own a lyricist with eloquence that exceeds his age. Furthermore, his vocal melodies and choruses are suddenly catchy as hell, which is one of the key reasons this album is as good as it is. Seriously, how do you listen to "Deceiver" and not sing along with "Youuu put your hands over your eyes / and pretend no one can see / we can right past your disguise" or "We sailed across the ocean with a boat we built / as we're navigating through the storms we passed along the way / we saw what we wanted and we chased it all" from "Across The Ocean". The guitarist/clean vocalist's performance is so assured, at such a young age, that the idea of him using his talent to go on to bigger and better musical ventures after Our Last Night seems an inevitability.

It's unlikely to change your opinion of the scene if you happen to dislike it, because there's little original to be found here, but that's the appeal of it for those of you out there, like me, that have begun to lose faith in the genre, so take heed: Our Last Night are reaching their potential and have put out a quality release in "We Will All Evolve" at a time when few, if any, other bands in their domain seem capable of doing so.

8

Download: Across The Ocean, The Air I Breathe, Deceiver, Into The Future
For The Fans of: Blessthefall, Underoath, Vanna, A Day To Remember, every scene band ever
Listen: Myspace

Release Date 04.05.2010
Epitah Records

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