The agony and the ecstasy!
The death bells ring out with the release of Alkaline Trio’s sixth album, their first for V2/Cooperative, produced by Josh Abraham, who has twiddled knobs for the likes of Linkin Park, Slayer and 30 Seconds To Mars. Some may wonder whether the band would stick to the same formula, or perhaps they might decide to sing happy and joyful songs whilst expressing their love of Jesus…er, no, don’t worry folks, Matt Skiba hasn’t crossed back over from the darkside, and the band still know how to pen a good catchy Punk/Rock song about death, booze, drugs and romance amongst other things…
First song, ‘Calling All Skeletons’ is classic Alkaline Trio and could’ve come straight from previous album, ‘Crimson’, which gives you a comforting feeling that things won’t be too different from previous albums, as Matt, Dan and Derek don’t try and be experimental, and God forbid, arty. Following on we have first single, ‘Help Me’ that first appeared on the band’s MySpace page generating 70k plays in a single day. Again we have the formula of large and fierce guitar riffs that rise like the Devil, as Matt sings out, “Help me, help me, won’t you // Sing me, sing me, one last song // Help me, help me // Somebody help me // Save me from myself…” Good stuff.
We then have Dan’s slightly deeper vocals on, ‘In Vein’ that has almost Ska guitars in the verse, and in the background we have the underrated drumming from Derek Grant, who perfectly makes up the missing technical musical parts that may lack with both Dan and Matt taking turns in singing again throughout the album. This also gives Alkaline Trio that distinctive sound. After this we have my favourite song from the album that showcases everything that is good about Matt’s song writing. Starting off with thick bass lines and gentle guitars, the vocals dominate in this mid-tempo song whereby the lyrics are prominent and deliciously morbid, telling tales of the last moments of a few people’s lives like, “Over and out, she said // From a hospital bed // For what it’s worth, it doesn’t hurt // Don’t cry // Over and out, he said // With a 45 to his head // The war has taken, everything from me // It’s all, I see…”
There are a number of songs that as you would expect border on anthems and ‘I Found Away’ is certainly one of them, whilst Mr Andriano sings out loud whilst asking us, “Do You Wanna Know?” in the song of the same name, and then in the totally Punk-tastic, ‘Ruin It’ between the big head-nodding riffs. ‘Live Young, Die Fast’ is a tough-plod of a song, dark and moody, whilst the guitars are almost melodic on, ‘Love Love, Kiss Kiss’ as Dan sings, “Take a look and see // I painted you a picture // It’s black and white // except the blood’s a little richer…”. Things speed up for the Rocking, ‘Lost And Rendered’ before the last song, ‘Into The Night’ brings down the black veil on the album in a song that is another gem of dark Punk Rock.
Each of the Alkaline Trio albums have evolved and although the first couple were more Punk than the later albums, ‘Good Mourning’ broke them more into the mainstream, whilst ‘Crimson’ kept things hot, and although clichéd, ‘Agony And Irony’ follows on nicely. It’s almost like mixing ‘Crimson’ with Matt Skiba’s side project Heavens, but taking away any synthesisers and adding extra guitars and thick bass lines. All in all this is a great album for fans of the band, but those who have been unsure of the band previously will still remain inconclusive in their feelings towards them. This is more of the same, and that’s pretty good for me…