|  artist: dead poetic
album: four wall blackmail
label: solid state records
released: 6/4/02
by: rob tatum
I first heard Dead Poetic at their show with Zao in July. I was pretty impressed by the performance. (See my show review) When I got home I did some research and found out some more information. The band is on Solid State Records (one of the biggest Christian labels). This sometimes can put a damper on how much I like a band, but not Dead Poetic. I downloaded an mp3 that night and read the lyrics, surprisingly not preachy. They are Christian, but you probably wouldn’t know from the music. Anyway, this spawned me to go pick up their new album, Four Wall Blackmail.
The album opens with the song "Burgundy," a catchy, emotional sing along. Lyrics include, “When you cried, when died, when you told me you’d open my eyes, I believed you.” The music is melodic and simple (as much of the album is). It’s pretty heavy, but it doesn’t sound as heavy because of the vocals, which are very melodic with background screams. This is one of the best songs on the album; my only complaint is that it is so simple. The chorus repeats over and over and the music fails to progress.
Second is "The Corporate Enthusiast." A less melodic anthem that describes the problems with the music industry. The message behind the song is justified, but the music is awful. Almost redundant punk at times. The intro vocals are awful as well, like bad screamo. Lead singer Brandon Rike must have forgotten what he was good at because half this song is just obnoxious. The only good part of the song besides the motive of the lyrics is the bridge with some decent guitar stringwork.
The third song starts off with some of the problems from the previous. Too much of the screams and not enough melody. But it improves. A Green Desire is one of the best sounding songs on the album, but the lyrics seem to be about God, or coincidentally a girl that would guide you to the answers. Haha. The music is simple, but fits the vocals well in the melodic parts of the song. The screaming has got to go by this point in the album. It just doesn’t work with the music.
Next is the title track, "Four Wall Blackmail." This is the longest song on the album. It begins with some string work on the guitar. This song has the best intro of any song on the album. The screaming doesn’t stop, but seems to fit a little better in this song. This is one of my favorite songs from this album, even though the song does involve many references to God. The song is very well arranged and it is very melodic. The music isn’t that complex and the lyrics aren’t to my preference, but this is one song that demonstrates Dead Poetic’s ability to make good sounding music. It’s catchy and pleasing to the ear.
Fifth is "August Winterman." The track is another well arranged piece. Nothing amazing musically, but that’s about how the whole album is. Lyrics include “Perfect, as if my wings worked like yours…but I’m falling down…..it’s a disease they’ll never have a cure for.” It’s hard to tell what the lyrics are about in this song, but this is my favorite song vocally (*I’m big on good sounding vocals*). The background screams actually mesh with the music and singer Brandon Rike sticks to what he is good at for most the song.
"Ottie Olsen" is the name of the sixth track. It has the worst intro of any of the songs on this album, and the verse isn’t much better. They should have saved the chorus for another song and thrown the rest of it out the window. The vocals in everything but the chorus are terrible. The music isn’t much better. It is plain, fast, and downright annoying. Listening to this song is frustrating because the chorus is really good.
The seventh song, "Bliss Tearing Eyes," is an all acoustic track. Very emo in everything about it. Some of the lyrics are “Cause you bleed all the time. The pieces of a broken heart are wasted time. And I can’t forgive myself for all the things I’ve done. But you, you do.” I’ll let you decided what that is about. It’s a toss up, but being from a Solid State band, I am going to go with the song being about God. It’s a nice change of pace and I really like Brandon’s voice.
Next up is "Stereochild," which, from the lyrics, is ironically about the problems I speak of with Christian bands and their preaching. Or at least from my perspective. Dead Poetic’s lyrics are hard to interpret but you would have to listen to this album to understand what I am talking about. This is another catchy song, but the background screams are a little overused.
"Arlington Arms" starts with terrible, boring driving guitar and those horrible screams. The verse and chorus of the song are a little easier to swallow as it gets a tad more melodic. Another lyrical change as this one is about Suburbia and the American dream. The lyrics are a nice change of pace, but the intro ruins the song.
The final track, "Tell Myself Goodbye," is another lyrical enigma in terms of motivation. There is really good drum work toward the beginning of the song, about the only thing I noticed about the drums throughout the record, as it isn’t just builds or blast beats. Nothing special about this song. Typical melodic song with screaming backing vocals.
This band has a ton of potential. The oldest member of the band is only 23, and the rest are like 19. If they figure out what is going for them and get rid of the boring redundancy of the screams, they will go far. They are really good at writing catchy songs, but some of the parts don’t fit. I recommend this to anyone who likes emo-core, but they don’t use the screams properly. I am anxious to see where this band progresses. Not a bad album by any means.
favorite song: "august winterman"
rating: 77%/100%
listen to dead poetic |
No comments:
Post a Comment