Greeley Estates - Go Wesr Young Man, Let The Evil Go East
For those not in the know, Arizona post hardcore outfit Greeley Estates garnered widespread attention as a result of being one of Pure Volume’s top ten artists. They received over 1 million plays and with their debut album ‘Outside Of This’ selling bucket loads in the Smartpunk store, Greeley Estates eventually found themselves on every date of the Vans Warped Tour three years after their initial formation.
By this point the name had spread and the band found themselves signed to Record Collection and co headlining the Myspace Tour in 2005.
So a couple of years later, numerous line up changes and a few releases down the line, Greeley Estates are back with their first full length album since 2006’s ‘Far From The Lies’. It’s called ‘Go West Young Man, Let The Evil Go East’ and it comprises of thirteen pretty huge sounding, energetic hardcore songs.
‘Go West Young Man…’ kicks off with ‘Blue Morning’, probably not the best choice of openers, yes it’s got a fair bit of ferocious energy thrown in, as do most of the tracks but it’s not the strongest on the album.
As for the rest of it, it’s nothing we haven’t heard before. It’s basically a blend of intense, bass driven crescendos with melodic pop hooks and just the right amount of screaming. In some parts I’m thinking this is actually pretty good, it’s got a tiny bit of Glassjaw in there, a bit of From First To Last and a pinch of From Autumn To Ashes, but then it’s also got all the other clichés too. It’s leaving me in two minds really. If you’re not bothered by the fact that it really is just as formulaic as everything else then it’s great, bog standard post hardcore/metalcore. If you’re growing tired of this somewhat stale genre however, Greeley Estates aren’t going to revive it for you. There’s definitely bite, just not enough.
So unfortunately Greeley Estates are not exactly innovative, but for what they lack in imagination and inspiration they make up in the fact that they worked hard. You cannot deny that the band have been and are still extremely popular with the fans, they simply would not be where they are now if they weren’t. Of course this popularity does not mean they’re especially groundbreaking, it just means they’re providing something that people want. If only they put as much effort into their songs as they do in their song titles. Oh well. Good luck to them regardless.