Album Review: Walls Within – After the Dawn

Marking a new chapter in the band’s journey, Albuquerque, NM’s Walls Within is set to release their latest offering, “After the Dawn,” early in 2016.

“After the Dawn” marks a change not only in the band’s line up, but also their sound, and it’s evident that the two are linked. Their previous release, “WWII,” (read my review here) had a pretty solid industrial influence to it, and while “After the Dawn” carries over the tempo and weight of that album, it definitely takes the band in a new sonic direction.

A lot of that comes directly from the change in vocalists–the new vocalist for Walls Within, Jesska, has a very controlled, almost restrained style that is reminiscent of Lacuna Coil’s Cristina Scabbia, and the new tunes follow right along with that vibe. There’s some emotive aggression on this album that wasn’t on the last release, even while carrying the last album’s overall tone.

If I had to point out anything ‘wrong’ with “After the Dawn,” I’d have to say that it feels too ‘safe’. It’s a solid set of rock tunes that stays true to what the band has previously released in terms of general feel, but I get the sense that there’s some real potential not being realized in what the band can do, in particular with Jeska’s vocals–I’d love to hear what she’d do with a producer who pushed her out of her comfort zone.

Overall, Walls Within isn’t pushing any boundaries with this album, staying within what could be considered the wall of their own comfort zones. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing though–these guys know what they’re good at and are doing it. And they’re doing it well, and the criticisms I’ve offered are as much influenced by my own preferences (I like things a little more uptempo) as they are by my personal enjoyment of this band.

This is definitely an album for fans of bands like Lacuna Coil, offering that almost-atmospheric gothic rock element that make it a good soundtrack for a dimly-lit, wine and smoke-filled Saturday night, and worth checking out when it drops next year.

Wall Within is: Anthony Romero- Drums/Percussion; Chris Mattson- Bass/Vocals; Nathan Joseph- Guitar , Vocals; Jeska- Vocals

wallswithin.com

facebook.com/wallswithinband

@wallswithin

 

Devastation In Midwesthell

I’m a day late in posting this one, for which I’d apologize, but hey, better late than never, right?

Last weekend I attended the Circle Pit Conservative’s Devastation Fest 2 in Anderson, IN, a day-long offering of some of Indiana’s best and most brutal metal bands. This show could pretty much be considered a who’s-who of the Indiana metal scene, with long roots in the local scene, going all they back to the 80’s, as well as representing the uniting forces of Midwesthell, with people in attendance and otherwise supporting from The Forge, The Doom Room, Midwesthell Melodies, Hert Promotions, and of course, the CPC guys. It was much more than just a bunch of bands coming together to honor and memorialize two of our scene’s recently departed (Jason McCash of The Gates of Slumber, and Tom Ball of Radiation Sickness), it was also a message to the scene at large that Midwesthell is here, we are a force, and things are changing.

Lawbringer @ Devastation Fest 2 6/21/1

[Photo Credit: SickenDesigns]

The show was great. Solid line up of bands that included AnarchAtecture, Lawbringer, Legion, Born Under Burden, Armored Assault, Necrophagus, We’d Be, and the aforementioned Radiation Sickness. Every single band threw down, and they threw down hard. It was unadulterated brutality, and I can’t help but wonder if seismographs weren’t registering the moment, that’s how heavy it was. The sound, despite being an absolutely -minimal- set up (only the vocals and the kick drums were mic’d–everything else was raw straight from the stage), was perfect; it was loud, in your face, and captured every band’s sound the way they deserved to be. The venue was an AmVets Post, with a stage that was accessible, and made it partly a floor show, which Lawbringer did 100% of the way. Nick Maxon of We’d Be was busy in the pit with the fans when he wasn’t handling his vocal lines during their set, and the fans were able to get right up and interact with every band.

That said, I have some thoughts, and some of them relate to my post from Sunday about the Outhouse United show last Friday at Centerstage.

I’m personally not a fan of all day fests–there’s nothing wrong with them necessarily, it’s just my thing. Maybe I’m old, maybe I’m just not ‘trve cvlt’ enough, maybe… I just suck. For me, there’s a simple fact: while I loved every band and am a fan of all of them, as a radio guy, I spend HOURS a day listening to music. Not just passively, like the average listener, but actively, both as a musician and as part of my job in screening music for airplay as well as from a critical standpoint as a reviewer. This means that my ears get tired, and sometimes I just need a break. ‘Fest’ shows are even more taxing for me when every band on them sounds similar enough that at a certain point it’s difficult to distinguish them from each other–I’m one of those guys that needs variety to stay engaged, and I dare say that with the exception of those fans that are super hardcore about their favorite genres, this applies to most fans. I don’t have hard numbers to back this opinion up, only observation: it’s been my experience that the shows that do best are the ones that feature bands with enough difference between each other that the listener can stay engaged because they don’t feel like they’re hearing the same thing over and over for hours on end.

Another issue I have is set lengths–very few ‘local’ (or even ‘regional’) bands have the kind of draw and holding power to need to play hour-long sets, and at an all-day show, by the third or fourth band, those hour sets start to feel a lot longer, especially if there’s little differentiation from one band to the next. Again, some of this is personal preference, but some of it comes from my time in the scene, both on stage and from simple observation: all but the most dedicated and committed (committable?) fans tend to get bored pretty quick. At shows with large audiences, this is less the case, because a mob mentality takes over, and let’s face it: we ALL thrive on the energy of being there, being part of the masses, being part of the bigger picture. But at smaller shows, the energy is different, because there are fewer people to sustain it, and if just a few people need to take a break, it’s much more noticeable and there are fewer people to make up for it.

Interestingly enough, this creates a vicious cycle: Promoters are, rightly so, of the mindset that they should be billing every show like it’s going to be the biggest, baddest show around (if they’re not, they’re not doing their job). But when the attendance isn’t what they planned for, they tend to feel let down, by the scene that they feel didn’t support them, but also because they feel that they let down the bands they promised a great show to. Promoters get that difficult job of trying to sell something not knowing how it’s really going to turn out, especially if they’re working at the local level, and I don’t envy them that. However, there has to be some kind of balance struck between planning for what’s most likely to happen (smaller shows with lower attendance) and what we all hope to achieve (bigger shows with packed houses). It’s a tough job to be sure, and I don’t envy the guys that are trying to make it happen; in fact, I applaud them, and I fully support them, and will do so however I can–such as I did at this show when I was asked to MC it.

I think that part of the problem some promoters have is that they get an early taste of success and start reaching too far too fast, expecting more than they really know is realistic. They put the work in, but they lose sight of the market they’re working in, and instead of building shows around that market, they reach for the stars, hoping for that magic moment, and when it doesn’t happen the way they had hoped it would, they’re naturally disappointed.

Devastation Fest had an audience turn out that was disappointing to the promoters, and I say that only because they have been pretty vocal about it themselves on social media. Dan and Nate are guys I know, and they’re good guys trying to do a good thing for a scene that they love and want to see life return to, and I completely empathize with their feelings about the turn out. We ALL want big shows with packed houses for local shows… but the scene isn’t ready for that yet. Not because people don’t want it, but because people are afraid to be the ones taking chances. Dan and Nate took a chance on creating one of these shows, and while it didn’t turn out the way they might have hoped, the show itself was a resounding success, because the people that were there and the bands that played bought into it. They took what was given to them and made it theirs. They owned it. As they should have. The people that weren’t there only know about what they missed because those who were there have made it a point to say publicly how awesome it was.

Because it was awesome.

Every show has something about it that could be done better. Every show has something that goes wrong. Me? I’ll take a low-attendance show as the ‘problem’ with a concert any day over technical difficulties, a band bailing, or anything else like that. They key is taking the sum total of all the things that happened, and weighing them against each other. And no matter what could have been better, Devastation Fest 2 -was- a success, and I expect that next year it will only be that much better.

Parental Advisory: Explicit Content

It’s no secret that metalheads are notoriously foul-mouthed, and as such, a lot of metal music contains language that is generally deemed to be ‘offensive.’ It’s my opinion that this, more than anything, is part of the reason that so much metal is overlooked and left off mainstream radio playlists. Sure, it’s easy enough for bands to do radio edits that clean up a track enough to make it acceptable for airplay, but that idea is somewhat antithetical to the very idea of metal–you know, that whole “Fuck the rules!” thing that so many of us have going on. Somehow though, metal continues to thrive, often without the support of mainstream radio, and indeed, in spite of it. The thing that gets me most though is that so often I hear bands and fans complaining that their local stations don’t support their local scenes. Yet, being a radio guy who takes submissions and -focuses- on the underground/unsigned scene, I can tell you pretty matter-of-factly that part of the problem is that metal bands refuse to self-censor.

Now, on principal, I’m against censorship, but there’s a simple fact at play here that the scene likes to forget: the FCC controls the airwaves, and if we want to hear our favorite metal bands, whether local, regional, national, or international, and regardless of ‘status’, we (they) have to play ball. The FCC levels pretty hefty fines against stations that air ‘offensive’ material, which isn’t good for business. And quite frankly, I’d rather see the bands comply by releasing one or two tracks that are compliant with FCC regulations. On a personal level, it simply bums me out that I have to not play something on my show that I really dig, just because there’s one (or a lot of) F-bombs in it. And yeah, while I have the capability to do edits in the radio studio, to be blunt, it’s not my job. Fundamentally, it is the band’s (or label/management/publicist/producer/whatever) responsibility to provide material that is acceptable for airplay–strangely enough, at the local level, bands seem more interested in saying “Fuck you!” to the rules but then complaining because they can’t get any attention from guys like me.

Internet radio has provided an alternative solution to the problem of FCC regulations, since internet traffic is not (currently) controlled by the government. Sites like Pandora, Last FM, Spotify and more offer fans the opportunity to hear un-edited tracks, but stations like Radio Free Kokomo, the station that The Forge (my show) airs on, aren’t as easily accessed by mobile users, and it’s often harder for local and regional acts to score addition to those other streaming sites.. Terrestrial radio still has the edge over internet and streaming media, though internet radio is beginning to make strides through the use of apps that allow users to listen on the go through their phones, tablets, and cars. Even so, scoring terrestrial radio airplay is something that almost every band dreams of, and a lot of bands will brag about getting a single play on their local ‘X’ station’s locals only show, which are usually relegated to some shitty time slot in the middle of the night when listener volume is at its lowest.

I read something recently about bands not caring if they make music that’s radio friendly. There are plenty of bands out there for whom that is an accurate statement for (as evidenced by the number of bands who like to use ‘fuck’ as the root word for most of their lyrics), and there’s NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT. But I happen to know (because I’m a station manager and a DJ) that there are more bands who want the airtime. It’s almost a stigma in the metal scene to be considered ‘radio friendly,’ yet so many fans and bands complain that they can’t get any action on their local station. They want to do things their way, and while I admire that sentiment at its core, so many of them miss the mark on finding balance. You can be heavy, you can be ‘teh most brvtvl cvlt trve’ metal band out there, and still be acceptable to radio stations like mine, who WILL take a chance on the underground (ya know, that’s whole point of The Forge…). But you have to follow the rules.

As long as the FCC controls terrestrial radio, the simple fact is that we, the underground metal scene, will have to play ball if we want to take advantage of the power of radio to reach new fans. Radio Free Kokomo has the benefit of being a college radio station, which means that not only can we play music from the underground, we PREFER to–but we still have to comply with FCC regulations (yeah, we’re currently internet only, but we’ve been granted our FCC license and are currently making plans to broadcast FM in the coming months), as well as university codes of conduct. So we have outlets, we have avenues for exposure, but I see a lot of bands bitching about not benefiting from them while slapping the hand that’s offering to help.

We can change things, sure. Look at the way what’s ‘offensive’ over the last few decades has changed. But change takes time, it takes persistence, and it often means playing by the rules until you’re in a position to make change happen. Me, I’m less worried about changing the already vague definition of ‘offensive’ that the FCC uses; I’m more concerned with giving the underground a home, and a place to be heard–but I can’t do that if all you’re going to do is call me a poseur because I won’t play your unedited tracks containing ‘offensive’ material. I’m not going to cost the scene what I’ve been able to give it with this show (which I don’t get paid to do, by the way).

It’s as simple as this, and I guess this is really the point of this thousand word rant:

If you don’t want to play by the rules, don’t. But don’t bitch when the rule makers ignore you for it.

 

Album Review: Catalytic – The Voice Of Reason

The Voice Of Reason

Catalytic

Release Date: 14 June 2014

https://www.facebook.com/CatalyticMusic

Review by Rob Salem

 

Catalytic – The Voice Of Reason

One of the perks of working in radio is getting advance copies of upcoming releases. I was recently privileged to get a copy of Catalytic’s soon-to-be-released debut album, The Voice Of Reason, and I’ll be honest—I’m glad I did. I’ve not made any secret out of the fact that despite having not seen Catalytic live (yet—I intend to remedy this ASAP) I’m a fan. This comes in part from the fact that I’ve been playing a couple of their demo tracks on The Forge for a while now, but also from the fact that these guys are active in the Indianapolis metal scene, and big advocates of not only themselves, but of other great bands in the scene. With that said, I took the time to listen to The Voice Of Reason a few times through, and to make sure that I was listening not as a fan, but as a critic. Here are my thoughts:

 

The Voice Of Reason is a solid album from start to finish. The production quality is great, making it easy to listen to, but also to hear everything that’s going on. These guys aren’t super-technical, and they’re not necessarily doing anything innovative with their sound, but that’s okay; they know their music, they know their sound, and they know what they’re good at. One of the things that they demonstrate is diversity in their sound while maintaining consistency. The songs range from thrashing shredders to down-tempo ballad-feeling tunes that succeed at evoking the introspective ear (‘Believe’). Dustin Strole gives his vocals a workout as he moves back and forth from melodic cleans to gut-wrenching roars, but he does it well; he obviously knows his range and sensibly works within it, while never sacrificing any of his power. The guitar work of James Donner and Dustin Chavez is tight, but I think only hints at what these guys are really capable of. Tracks like ‘Red Stained Plains’ evoke the riffing of Amon Amarth at times, while other tracks definitely pull from the New England metalcore sound; these guys obviously have talent, and I’d like to see them stretch their wings a little more by writing some riffs that push the boundaries of their comfort zones and really challenge themselves and each other. Jesse Curtis on bass and Jason Dinwiddie on drums lay down thunder as a tight-as-hell rhythm section that drives the rest of the band while maintaining an unshakeable foundation that gives the guitars and vocals the elevation they need to soar.

 

All in all, The Voice Of Reason is an impressive first offering. The original demos that Catalytic released in 2013 were good in and of themselves, but hearing those tracks get that studio polish and go through some of the evolution that is expected of produced studio work demonstrates that these guys take their craft seriously and are always looking to improve upon and perfect things that are already considered good. The Voice Of Reason is going to stay in my personal rotation for a while to come, and I can guarantee you’ll be hearing it regularly on The Forge; I only hope that there’s a label somewhere smart enough to pick it up for distribution. Catalytic is poised to help put the Indianapolis metal scene back on the map, and I’m proud to say that you heard it heard it first on The Forge.