The Year In Review (And Then Some)

Well, don't say I didn't warn you.


As I predicted in my last post (about four months ago), the one-two punch of grad school and wedding planning pretty much eradicated this blog from my priorities for a while.  Now that my first semester is over, though, I'll be able to get caught up on all the awesome (and some not-so-awesome) music that's seen the light of day over the past year or so.  And what better time of year to do so than as the year itself is coming to a close and everyone else with access to a keyboard is putting together their year-end recaps?  You'll see plenty of list-making and recapping (is that a legitimate word?) here too.


But first, there are a few releases from the last couple months of 2010 that I never got around to mentioning, so I'll touch on those first:

• Definitely check out Joe Satriani's latest solo album, Black Swans And Wormhole Wizards: it's his most creative release in years, with plenty of Chickenfoot-inspired songwriting energy and a few off-the-wall touches (who would guess that T-Pain-esque autotune sounded so cool on a guitar?).
• The latest Alter Bridge release, AB III, is also pretty satisfying: Mark Tremonti and Myles Kennedy can churn out killer riffs like few other musicians I know of, and while sometimes the album starts to sound a little same-y, there's no denying just how good at their craft these guys are.
• Trapt also put out a new album last fall, No Apologies, and while it won't win any awards for virtuosity or innovation, it hits that high-school-metal guilty pleasure sweet spot; if that's your thing, give it a chance.
• Kings Of Leon released Come Around Sundown around the same time, an easy-going collection of radio-friendly Southern-tinged alt-rock tunes that's satisfying, if not life-changing.
• Underoath lost one of their two lead vocalists before recording and releasing 0 (Disambiguation), but the one remaining singer/screamer steps up to the plate admirably and fronts what might be the band's most crushing album yet; also, welcome touches of electronic atmosphere help diversify what could have been yet another monotonous metalcore album.
• Finally, My Chemical Romance released Danger Days: The True Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys, and if you couldn't tell from the somewhat ridiculous title, it's a pretty pretentious affair; their songwriting has never been less memorable, and the whole album is weighed down by some half-baked concept about superheroes or something that the music itself really can't support.  Avoid that one.

. . . There.  Now that that's out of the way, we can move on to 2011.  Everyone comfortable?  Good, because this one's a doozy.  I'll be breaking up my recap of the past year's music into three sections: the awesome stuff that you should definitely check out, the okay stuff that you might give a chance if you're so inclined, and the disappointing stuff that you should probably steer clear of.  Here goes nothing . . .


The Awesome Stuff

• The Decemberists - The King Is Dead - Colin Meloy and bandmates ease up on their usual highbrow, conceptual approach to songwriting and decide to make a simple country-influenced folk-rock album, and the result is some of the group's best material.  (An EP of leftovers, Long Live The King, was also released this year, and complements it nicely.)
• Scale The Summit - The Collective - Virtuosic instrumental prog-metal that, for all its technical skill, doesn't come across as blatantly shreddy most of the time.  These guys have a great sense of melody, and although some ideas feel underdeveloped (some of the songs are surprisingly short), this is a blast to listen to without feeling exhausting.
• The Human Abstract - Digital Veil - One of THA's founding guitarists returned to the band after taking classical guitar training, and it shows in the band's new material.  The songs here are meticulously crafted and extremely tightly played while still being downright brutal.  The vocal performance on this one is also leaps and bounds better than their previous effort.
• Long Distance Calling - Long Distance Calling - Imagine some strange love-child conceived by Tool and Sigur Ros, and you'll have a vague idea of what LDC is all about - brooding, atmospheric instrumental post-metal that packs a punch.  The self-titled album fine-tunes that formula perfectly, serving up chunky headbanging riffs and dreamy ambience in equal measure.
• Tesseract - One - Tesseract offers a decidedly more melodic, almost ethereal take on the heavily-syncopated and down-tuned style of the still-growing djent scene, and their debut album announces the band as a force to be reckoned with.  Soaring melodies and extremely intricate, pummeling guitar and bass work have rarely sounded so good together.
• Radiohead - The King Of Limbs - The genre-defying icons' latest is one of their most low-key, introverted releases, so it takes a while to really show its true brilliance.  Once the skittering programming and sinuous vocal work give up their secrets, though, it's a very satisfying listen.
• Between The Buried And Me - The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues - At only three songs and thirty minutes in length, BTBAM's latest EP almost feels skimpy enough not to count among this year's standout releases.  However, there are enough crushingly epic moments here to make this one impossible to ignore.
• Foo Fighters - Wasting Light  - Famously recorded in Dave Grohl's garage to analog tape, this is fittingly the Foos' most ass-kicking album since the Nineties, while still offering up hook after delicious hook.  No frills, no pretension, just straight-up rock at its finest.  The perfect album for cranking up in your car and singing along to (or air-drumming or -guitaring) at the top of your lungs.
• Thursday - No Devolucion - Thursday plays down their post-hardcore roots and cranks up the reverb-soaked atmosphere on this one, and it works to great effect.  Definitely a mood album, and much different than their earlier work, but one of their best.  Great for rainy days and being contemplative.
• Manchester Orchestra - Simple Math - These guys have a way of not really fitting into the molds of indie-rock, alternative rock, post-hardcore, or anything else.  But they also have a way of making great music, and this album is no exception.  Great lyrics and catchy melodies make this a blast to sing along to.
• Bon Iver - Bon Iver - Just about everyone else has been raving about this album lately, and I have to say, they're right - this is a beautiful work of minimalist indie-rock.  Atmospheric playing and cryptic, yet somehow still emotionally resonant, lyrics make this album a joy to listen to.
• Symphony X - Iconoclast - If blistering, technical riffs, over-the-top shredding solos, epic orchestral/choral passages, and some of music's heavy-metal-est vocals this side of Ronnie James Dio are to your liking, look no further - Iconoclast has all of this in spades.  In fact, one of the album's handicaps is that it can be too consistent in its constant bringing of the thunder.
• Incubus - If Not Now, When? - Incubus may have dialed way back on the overall level of energy and aggression with their latest, but their songwriting skills remain as finely-tuned as ever.  This is quite a divisive album simply because it's such a radical change in style for the band, but they're still writing great songs and performing them with heart.
• Dream Theater - A Dramatic Turn Of Events - DT's first album without founding drummer Mike Portnoy, and their first with newcomer Mike Mangini, was always going to be a make-or-break moment for the band - and they nailed it.  This is their most dynamic, well-balanced, and expertly-crafted album in years, and should signal the beginning of a thrilling new era for Dream Theater and its fans.
• Thrice - Major/Minor - For their previous album, Beggars, Thrice dialed back a bit on the heaviness present in their earlier work; much of that energy returns on this album, though, coupled with the band's continued maturation into masterful songwriters.  Add this to Dustin Kensrue's fantastic lyrical work, and the result is a powerful, visceral, and moving album.  Thrice's track record is already impeccable, but this is one of their best.
• Wilco - The Whole Love - The two sides of Wilco's music - experimental, willfully obtuse album rock and bright, jangly pop songs - tend to swing in and out of balance with each other over time, but they reached almost the perfect mixture with this release.  It's an easily approachable, pleasant album, but one that reveals surprising depth if you give it a chance.
• Steven Wilson - Grace For Drowning - I'm still a huge fan of Wilson's first solo album, Insurgentes, and his new one expands on the already wide sonic palette present there.  Avant-garde free jazz epics, choirs and orchestras, brooding ballads, and ominous electronic sound design come together to make this an adventurous and truly progressive listening experience.
• Animals As Leaders - Weightless - Similar to Scale The Summit's release this year, but a lot more over-the-top in terms of both heaviness and virtuosity, this is a tour-de-force of eight-string-guitar-led technical instrumental metal that still contains songs that will get stuck in your head.  Mind-blowingly heavy at times, but still capable of beautiful moments, this one is an absolute blast.
• Chevelle - Hats Off To The Bull - Chevelle is nothing if not consistent, and this album continues their streak of accessible but satisfying alt-metal releases.  Some of the band's best songwriting yet is on display here; also, in certain places, the vibe of their early-'00s breakthrough records shines through again, which is definitely welcome.

The Okay Stuff

For lovers of indie-rock and things generally on the lighter side:  Iron And Wine released an album full of classic '70s- and '80s-inspired pop songs in Kiss Each Other Clean; Mogwai continued being probably the most sonically diverse post-rock band out there with Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will; The Airborne Toxic Event released their second album, All At Once, full of solid (if just a little bland at times) songwriting and clever lyrics; Explosions In The Sky, unlike Mogwai, did little to expand their sound with Take Care, Take Care, Take Care, but still managed to create something epic and beautiful; Death Cab For Cutie put down their guitars for Codes And Keys and created their most keyboard-driven, pop-oriented album yet; Jack's Mannequin released People And Things, another album full of pleasant and well-written but by no means life-changing piano-pop songs; and Coldplay cranked up the shiny pop production values on Mylo Xyloto to compelling effect, while losing none of their inherent sing-along-ability.

Fans of '90s nostalgia had albums from Red Hot Chili Peppers and Jane's Addiction to look forward to this year, and both of them turned out pretty alright, if not fantastically.  Both I'm With You and The Great Escape Artist are solid enough, but still have an air of older bands struggling for relevance and fresh-sounding material long after their heydays have passed.

For the metalheads:  Red released Until We Have Faces and took strides to break their formula of orchestra-inflected alt-metal, which turned out quite well; Funeral For A Friend released their most energetic, spirited album in years with Welcome Home Armageddon; Protest The Hero put their impressive chops on display again with Scurrilous, delivering lots of shred but not quite as many memorable melodies; August Burns Red continued on their path of being a better-than-average and quite talented metalcore band with Leveler; Fair To Midland released Arrows & Anchors, a highly enjoyable and diverse album despite being just a bit overstuffed and filler-ridden; Trivium released the intentionally stripped-down In Waves, chock full of fun guitar riffs but lacking the amount of substance present in their previous effort; The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus released Am I The Enemy, a huge improvement over their dismal second album but still pretty run-of-the-mill emo-punk-metal; Staind returned to their heavy, angsty roots with their surprisingly enjoyable self-titled album; Opeth dropped all trace of death metal from their sound with Heritage, and crafted an admirably adventurous but at times frustratingly obtuse prog-rock album; Chickenfoot released Chickenfoot III (really only their second album), a collection of straight-ahead hard rock songs that can't quite escape the shadow of its predecessor; Machine Head released Unto The Locust, a satisfyingly heavy but somewhat abrasive album that didn't turn out quite as epic as it should have been; Mastodon crafted their first non-concept album, The Hunter, which is quite a fun listen, even though it lacks the ambition of their other work; Evanescence released their surprisingly tight and hook-filled self-titled album after half a decade of silence; Redemption returned with This Mortal Coil, a prog-metal epic with lots of impressive playing but a slight lack of dynamics and memorable songwriting; 3 released The Ghost You Gave To Me, continuing their trend of albums with plenty of great performances bogged down by just a few too many filler-ish tracks; Cynic released the EP Carbon-Based Anatomy, which turns firmly away from their earlier death-metal influences and in a more New-Age-y prog direction; and Korn showed an admirable willingness to experiment with dubstep on The Path To Totality, even though the results are spotty at best.

Oh yeah, and Umphrey's McGee released Death By Stereo, a diverse album jumping around from raucous jam-rock to trippy funk and everywhere in between which may disappoint those looking for another Mantis but delight listeners eager for something new.  (They get their own paragraph because I couldn't figure out which of the ones above they fit in best.  That alone should tell you something about this album.)

The Crappy Stuff

Yes, 2011 was a pretty great year, but it also saw its share of music that sucked.  God knows there's plenty of terrible music out there, but there are only a few especially egregious offenders that I'll mention here - usually notable for being particularly disappointing releases from otherwise decent bands.  Dredg is the first offender, deciding to ditch the prog-influenced alt-rock of their earlier work for blatantly processed, lazy pop on Chuckles And Mr. Squeezy.  if the absurd title wasn't offensive enough, the lack of any obvious effort to write or perform decent songs makes this their worst album by far.  Seether has released its share of mildly enjoyable radio metal, but Holding Onto Strings Better Left To Fray is a big miss.  Almost every track feels like a tired rehash of a better song that they released two or three records ago, and lead singer Shaun Morgan has clearly run out of good lyrical ideas.  Taking Back Sunday's self-titled album sounded great on paper, featuring the reunion of their original lineup from the early '00s, but the results are much less than the sum of their parts.  It's a halfway-decent pop-punk album, but there's not much memorable going on, and it fails to stand up to its predecessors.  And, predictably, Nickelback lands among the worst of the year with Here And Now.  In the album's defense, it is an improvement over Dark Horse; most of the sappy Def Leppard-isms have been done away with, and there seems to be some more involved, intricate guitar playing happening on a few songs.  But at the end of the day, it's still mostly comprised of ham-fisted, juvenile songs about sex and drinking, delivered with a bare minimum of imagination or originality.  I'm not sure if Nickelback deserves every bit of the hate directed at them - there are much, much worse artists out there soaking up airwaves and bandwidth - but it's hard to defend them when their track record is this disappointing.

. . . Well, there you have it.  Relative Pitch is now officially caught up to the present.  That's the long version; stay tuned for a more concise breakdown of my personal Top 10 albums of the year.

Prior Engagements

So in case you missed the memo, my awesome girlfriend Morgan and I got engaged a couple weeks ago.  Needless to say, I couldn't be more excited - anything to that effect I could ever say here would be a massive understatement.  But what does this mean for the future of Relative Pitch?  Well, let me just say that realizing you're getting married in less than a year has a funny way of reshuffling your priorities.  However, I'll still be making an effort to check in whenever I get a chance, I assure you.  Just don't expect reviews or musings with any degree of regularity.


Oh yeah, and I'm starting grad school this week.  That won't exactly help in keeping a blogging schedule either.  So savor this one, because it might have to last you a while.


Oceansize - Self Preserved While The Bodies Float Up (September 14, 2010)


I wasn't quite sure what to expect from this album before I added it to the collection (having only heard a few samples online and read some favorable reviews), but it turned out to be a gamble that paid off.  Oceansize was quite an under-appreciated group, and they have made some top-notch music.  (Note the past-tense "was:" sadly, they disbanded early in 2011 to pursue other musical projects.  I can't help but feel like my discovery of the band had something to do with it.)  Self Preserved is a diverse and complex album with a wide array of musical textures, from sludgy, dirge-like hard rock to lush orchestration and intricate prog.  Check it out if Karnivool or Porcupine Tree are to your liking; their back catalog has some excellent musical moments, as well, including the albums Frames and Everyone Into Position.  It's just a shame we won't be seeing any new material from this very talented group of musicians.


Rating: 4/5


Standout Tracks: "SuperImposer," "Silent/Transparent," "Pine," "Oscar Acceptance Speech"


Jimmy Eat World - Invented (September 28, 2010)


Jimmy Eat World have had a tendency to flip-flop between shiny, accessible pop-rock albums and slightly grittier, more muscular affairs over the course of their career, and they do both remarkably well.  Invented sees the pendulum swinging back towards the low-fi, heart-on-sleeve style of their early works, while still preserving their pop sensibilities, and the balance is just about perfect - this is definitely one of their best albums.  Slow-building songs like the title track and "Mixtape" hearken back to the Clarity days, while more immediate tracks like "Evidence," "Coffee And Cigarettes," and the acoustic-driven album opener "Heart Is Hard To Find" help build momentum and reinforce the band's songwriting skill.  JEW at their best can infuse you with a sense of nostalgia like few other bands can (see also The Gaslight Anthem), and this is a great example of their skill.


Rating: 3.5/5


Standout Tracks: "Mixtape," "Heart Is Hard To Find," "Coffe And Cigarettes," "Invented"


James LaBrie - Static Impulse (September 28, 2010)


One would expect a solo album from the lead singer of Dream Theater to be a lush, indulgent affair, but Static Impulse is a pleasant departure from that expectation.  LaBrie, with songwriting partner Matt Guillory, instead delivers a solid melodic metal album with some extremely enjoyable instrumental playing - every musician on the disc delivers tight, virtuosic performances that impress more and more with every listen.  LaBrie doesn't hog the spotlight nearly as much as you might expect - the sound is of a solid, cohesive band writing and performing some great heavy tunes.  The lyrical content can be a bit of an Achilles' Heel, however, with some cringe-inducing turns of phrase here and there, but if you can get through that, you're in for a treat.


Rating: 3.5/5


Standout Tracks: "One More Time," "This Is War," "Euphoric," "Jekyll Or Hyde"


Finger Eleven - Life Turns Electric (October 5, 2010)


Life Turns Electric is an unfortunate example of a band going in the exact opposite musical direction that they should.  Finger Eleven have created some high-quality, more-complex-than-average modern rock in their time, but by all appearances, the Top-40 success of "Paralyzer" put an end to those days, because this release is a pretty transparent effort to capitalize on that change of style.  The band tries time and again to create a viable repeat of the success of their dance-rock departure, and fails miserably - what's left is a remarkably bland disc of easily forgettable songs.  A little bit of heart does manage to show through on the album's more somber numbers, plus a song or two that somehow transcend the rest of the album's tastelessness and become something almost reminiscent of old-school '90s alt-rock, but for the most part, this is a failed experiment, and should probably be avoided unless you need to put on something you can just ignore - you won't be missing much.  (Bonus points for catching the High Fidelity reference, by the way.)


Rating: 1/5


Standout Tracks: "Ordinary Life," "Love's What You Left Me With," "Stone Soul"

Pure Undiluted Guitar Awesomeness (And A Few More Reviews)

I'm gonna start this entry off by urging you, as if your life depended on it, to seek out and support some absolutely incredible music - in this case, that of a guitarist named Dave Weiner.  Dave has gotten most of his exposure from being a rhythm/backup guitarist in Steve Vai's live band, but if you do just a bit more digging on the Internet, you'll find that he's created some amazing music on his own.  His latest album, On Revolute, is one of the best guitar-focused instrumental albums I think I've ever heard, and it's a shame more people haven't had the chance to listen to it.  It really runs the gamut of sounds, too, from epic, heavy progressive rock to relaxing acoustic music - and even at its heaviest, it's a long way from being just another blindingly fast, emotionless shred record.  These are great songs, first and foremost, and they will get in your head (or at least they've gotten in mine).  Take a listen to the samples here if you need to hear it for yourself; I'd recommend ordering from his official website rather than Amazon, though, because A) it's cheaper and B) it automatically enters you to win some cool free stuff.  However you do it, though, get this CD - you'll be glad you did.


. . . Okay, I know that was a little more biased and fanboy-ish than usual for me, but I just had to get that off my chest.  Now on with your regularly scheduled programming.


Filter - The Trouble With Angels (August 17, 2010)

The thing to remember when comparing Filter's newer output with the band's well-known hits from the '90s and '00s is that, aside from ever-present frontman Richard Patrick, the band's lineup is constantly changing form record to record.  Put simply, the Filter that recorded Short Bus back in 1995 is almost a completely different band than the one that released The Trouble With Angels in 2010.  That said, there's a lot about this album that harkens back to the band's stripped-down, aggressive early material - most of the tracks here are built around monstrously simple-yet-effective guitar riffs that are some of the heaviest in Filter's catalog.  This is quite a welcome change from 2008's Anthems For The Damned, which saw Patrick lightening his songwriting and lyrical approach in a questionable attempt to make a more accessible, socially-conscious record.  Patrick wisely returns to the vitriol-filled methodology that made his band famous in the first place on Angels, dredging up all his old demons and screaming in their faces like he hasn't in almost a decade of recorded material.  This is a loud, angry, in-your-face hard rock record, and it's what Filter has always done best.  (Check out the deluxe edition of the album, if you can find it, for a bonus disc with some quality extra material not found on the standard, 10-track CD.)


Rating:  4/5


Standout Tracks:  "No Love," "Drug Boy," "Down With Me," "The Trouble With Angels"


Stone Sour - Audio Secrecy (September 7, 2010)

Stone Sour will probably never get rid of its association with Slipknot - which is natural, since the bands do share two members in vocalist Corey Taylor and guitarist Jim Root - but it's kind of a pity, because the bands are so different from one another in musical approach and target audience that it's really an apples-to-oranges scenario.  Audio Secrecy, the third Stone Sour record, highlights the differences between the two bands' sounds more boldly than either record that preceded it.  There's still plenty of heavy material here, so it's not like they've gone completely soft; the focus has simply shifted to being very song-centered and melody-driven, as opposed to churning out riff after jackhammering riff.  This makes for a slightly lower-key album, and it might come off at first as being more mainstream or watered-down than its predecessors, but the songwriting here is really as good as Stone Sour has ever managed to put to CD - almost all of the album's tracks feature at least one or two sections that are guaranteed to get stuck in your head.  And yes, there are a few lighter, bluesier ballad tracks, but the band's improvement in songwriting ability extends to those songs as well, so the lightening of the band's approach can be forgiven.  Sure, Audio Secrecy is nothing revolutionary or mind-bogglingly great, but if you're looking for a solid hard rock album with plenty of memorable songs, look no further.


Rating:  3.5/5


Standout Tracks:  "Digital (Did You Tell)," "Hesitate," "Unfinished," "Miracles"


Linkin Park - A Thousand Suns (September 14, 2010)

It seems that the more popular a band gets, the louder their fans protest when the band attempts to evolve or change anything about their signature sound.  When you're as popular as Linkin Park, you can expect the outcry to be a loud one indeed - which has happened twice so far in the band's career, once following the release of 2007's Minutes To Midnight, and almost like clockwork, again after the release of their latest, 2010's A Thousand Suns.  This most recent record finds the band straying almost unrecognizably from the blueprint they laid down with Hybrid Theory; detuned guitar riffs, turntable interludes, and the signature dueling-rap-and-sung vocal approach are all but nonexistent here.  Instead, Linkin Park has gone headfirst into much more experimental territory, ramping up their electronica and ambient influences to the point where it's undeniably the least heavy album of their career.  The upside of this experimentation is that it yields results that are at worst, at least interesting, and at best, some of the most musically satisfying songs in the band's career so far.  Mike Shinoda actually sings much more than he raps on A Thousand Suns (although the tracks that feature Shinoda's rapping are actually some of the album's best); Brad Delson's guitar playing is much more textural (think The Edge from U2) than riff-driven; and Joe Hahn contributes much more keyboard work and sample-driven textures than turntable scratching.  And somehow, it almost always works.  There may be a few awkward patches and failed sonic experiments, but Linkin Park's willingness to stretch their boundaries as musicians and songwriters has, for the most part, yielded some very enjoyable music.  And I'd take an interesting new sound from a beloved band any day over a tired retread of played-out ideas.


Rating:  3.5/5


Standout Tracks:  "Wretches And Kings," "Burning In The Skies," "When They Come For Me," "Iridescent"

Moving Right Along . . .

So, in between finally listening to the latest Dredg album (kind of weird and very unexpected, but not really as bad as everyone says, as long as you're in the right frame of mind) and completely geeking out over the newly-released single from Dream Theater (it can be heard here, and it's really good), I figured I was about due for another post, if only to get a bit closer to being caught up to the present day in releases.


Korn - Korn III: Remember Who You Are (July 6, 2010)

Love 'em or hate 'em - and there are plenty of people in either camp - Korn has never been a band to make the same album twice.  Throughout their career, the band has flip-flopped between slick, highly-produced, highbrow albums chock full of left-field musical flourishes and the opposite extreme of raw, unrefined, visceral nu-metal simplicity.  Both approaches have yielded a range of results, but Korn III: Remember Who You Are (the Roman numeral in the title seems to reflect yet another lineup change: the addition of drummer Ray Luzier) falls squarely and unquestionably in the latter category, adding an intentionally low-fi, almost St. Anger-like coat of paint to the band's chugging, simplistic brand of heaviness.  It's a loose, even sloppy record, but in places, this aesthetic actually complements Korn's sound nicely. The trouble with this record, as on a good deal of their other records, is that the songs tend to run together with little to distinguish any of them from one another.  Jonathan Davis's limited emotional range and unsophisticated - to put it quite nicely - lyrical approach tends to get overbearing, and James "Munky" Shaffer's guitar parts walk a thin line between refreshingly uncluttered and simply unremarkable; Reginald "Fieldy" Arvizu's signature bass sound is as grating as ever, and Luzier's drumming is sadly under-utilized - the guy's a fantastic drummer, but he doesn't seem to be a good fit for a band like Korn.  Aside from a few tracks where the formula seems to click, the majority of Remember Who You Are tends to simply run together into a formless mass of average low-IQ-metal - slightly grittier than normal on the surface, but with the same uninspired content underneath.


Rating: 2.5/5


Standout Tracks: "Oildale (Leave Me Alone)," "Are You Ready To Live?," "Move On"


Avenged Sevenfold - Nightmare (July 27, 2010)

Anytime a band loses a member to a tragic and untimely death, one of two things tend to happen: either the band continues on with renewed inspiration in honor of their fallen comrade and produces some of the best material of their career, or the remaining members find themselves unable to continue as more than a shadow of their former musical selves.  When Avenged Sevenfold's drummer Jimmy "The Rev" Sullivan passed away during the writing process for Nightmare, all eyes were on the band to see which one of these scenarios would play out.  Thankfully, the remaining band members were up to the challenge, and produced one of the best albums of their career.  A7X had finely tuned their unique mix of punk-metal energy, hard-rock attitude, considerable songwriting ability, and virtuosic playing over the course of their previous two albums (2005's City Of Evil and 2007's self-titled release), and it appears again here in top form.  Nightmare is overflowing with enough satisfyingly chunky riffs and anthemic choruses to silence anyone who ever doubted the band's talent.  Much ado has been made of the fact that none other than Mike Portnoy (formerly of Dream Theater) handled the drum tracks in The Rev's absence and briefly toured with the band in support of the album; many have gone so far as to cite Portnoy's involvement with A7X as the reason he left DT.  But all that drama is neither here nor there - Portnoy's performance on Nightmare is as fantastic as you'd expect, and complements the band's sound very well while staying true to The Rev's drumming style.  Put simply, Nightmare's a damn good album, especially considering the situation the band overcame to make it.


Rating: 4/5


Standout Tracks: "Nightmare," "Save Me," "God Hates Us"


Paul Gilbert - Fuzz Universe (August 3, 2010)

In my mind, what sets Paul Gilbert apart from the rest of the top-tier virtuoso guitarists operating today (your Joe Satrianis and Steve Vais and Yngwie Malmsteens) is that he doesn't seem to take himself too seriously.  While everyone else is deadly serious about creating intricate art, Gilbert is in it just to have fun and shred his ass off - and, as evidenced more than ever by Fuzz Universe, his music is all the better for it.  The songs here are by turns epic (see "Blowtorch" and the title track), quick and snappy ("Count Juan Chutrifo" and "Don't Rain On My Firewood"), and tongue-in-cheek ("Batter Up" and "Propeller"), and every track simply exudes enjoyment.  Gilbert's skill as a guitarist has always been absolutely beyond question, and there are plenty of jaw-dropping displays of talent here to back that up - aside from being an incredible lead and rhythm player, he's an expert at coaxing all kinds of delicious tone from his instruments.  There's more than enough musical range covered here to keep things interesting, too, from headbanging, horns-throwing hard rock to jangly pop to retro shuffles and even classical (a performance of J. S. Bach's Partita In D Minor translates surprisingly well to electric guitar).  But the one overall feature pulling the album together is that it's just so much fun.  You can tell that Gilbert and all the rest of the musicians involved had a joyful experience making this album, and that joy is infectious - just try listening to Fuzz Universe without feeling some of that joy, I dare you.


Rating: 4.5/5

Standout Tracks: "Fuzz Universe," "Don't Rain On My Firewood," "Blowtorch," "Will My Screen Door Stop Neptune"

Just So You Know . . .

. . . I've been a little on the busy side.  Between moving to another state, lining up a new job, moving again, and getting ready for grad school, I haven't exactly had a whole lot of time to sit around and churn out reviews like I once did.  Not to turn Relative Pitch into just another personal-life blog that no one cares about (been there, done that, just like a million LiveJournal-scribing angsty teenagers before and since), but since that stuff directly affected my blogging output, I think it warrants mentioning.  Besides, I think I have a better excuse for my most recent unintentional hiatus than the last one (chalk the previous year-long drought up to pure, undiluted laziness; I'd like to think that's not the case here).


But anyway, lest you believe I've given up on the blogging thing again, here I am.  I'll be trying to get us caught up to the present day as far as music releases go; keep your eyes open for some blurbs about noteworthy releases over the past year or so, starting in this post - I'll be cutting back on the formally structured, one-review-per-post format a bit, because honestly, who wants to slog through that much blathering about every little CD?  You'll probably see it return for albums that are really a big deal (because, of course, that's not at all a subjective assessment of an album's worth), but it's probably not going to be the predominant format from here on out.  Besides, like I've pointed out before, it's not like I'm getting paid for this or anything.


Band Of Horses - Infinite Arms (May 18, 2010)

I stumbled across this album by online word-of-mouth, combined with some YouTube previewing, meaning that I didn't have a whole lot of previous knowledge of Band Of Horses before spinning Infinite Arms for the first time.  It's a refreshing way to approach a new release: minimal preconceptions of what you're expecting to hear.  Largely because of this, Infinite Arms was quite a pleasant surprise.  My first impression of the album's overall sound was that it reminded me of a much more country- and bluegrass-influenced Snow Patrol.  I don't feel like that description does the band justice, though - Band Of Horses is a really talented group, and their 2010 album has some top-notch indie-rock songwriting.  Words that come to mind when listening to this album: comfortable; homey; intimate.  The songs wrap around you like a well-worn pair of slippers on a winter morning.  Lyrically, each song seems to tell a simple yet evocative story, and it's hard not to get pulled in.  Although, really, there's no reason to resist the pull; this album is a consistent pleasure, even if it's not quite revolutionary.


Rating: 3.5/5


Standout Tracks: "Laredo," "NW Apt.," "Blue Beard," "Neighbor"


Nevermore - The Obsidian Conspiracy (June 8, 2010)

This was an album I had pretty high hopes for.  I'd heard a couple older Nevermore tracks prior to The Obsidian Conspiracy's release, and I had really enjoyed what I heard: super-heavy, well-written guitar riffs, impeccable musicianship (especially on the part of lead guitarist Jeff Loomis), and a suitably dark, if a bit cliched, lyrical approach.  Intending to make their 2010 album a streamlining of Nevermore's occasionally bloated prog-metal MO, the band apparently cut out whatever x-factor was in their songwriting process along with the proverbial fat they trimmed from their sound.  Don't get me wrong, there's still plenty here to headbang along to; Loomis continues to bring the goods as an absolutely shredding guitarist, letting loose on some technically amazing riffs and lead work.  Many of the songs tend to run together, however, with few enjoyable hooks to remember.  A lot of the blame for this falls on vocalist Warrel Dane: his oddly-inflected, almost classical-art-song-influenced performances just sound awkward in many places, making certain songs a chore to listen to.  Dane seems to really like harmonic-minor scales, too - two or three songs here feature almost the exact same exotic-sounding vocal melodies.  Almost everything about his performance seems uninspired, and that feeling seems to be shared by the rest of the band.  It's probably worth noting that Loomis and drummer Van Williams left Nevermore less than a year after The Obsidian Conspiracy was released.  Maybe they felt the same way about the album as I do.  (By the way, Jeff Loomis has an instrumental solo record entitled Zero Order Phase, released in 2008; I'd recommend checking that album out over this one any day.)


Rating: 2/5


Standout Tracks: "Without Morals," "The Obsidian Conspiracy," "The Day You Built The Wall"

The Gaslight Anthem - American Slang (June 15, 2010)

If you've ever listened to an album that made you feel like a kid again, then you know what listening to American Slang feels like for me.  I'm not usually a huge punk-rock fan, but The Gaslight Anthem seems to press a whole slew of buttons that most punk bands completely miss (not to mention the presence of a lot of other genres influencing their sound, including traditional American-heartland rock-&-roll and '90s-style alt-rock).  American Slang is an album about being young, when you had all kinds of new-found freedom but no idea what to do with it; when every reckless night out came packaged with a morning filled with second thoughts; when you were just jaded enough to realize that heartbreak is bound to happen, but still not immune to the way it brings the world crashing down around you.  Vocalist and songwriter Brian Fallon has a great gift for evoking all these emotions and more in each and every one of these top-notch, Americana-folk-meets-East-Coast-punk slices of life.  Musically speaking, the songs are excellent; this album is overflowing with guitar hooks and singalong choruses, to the extent that literally every song has the potential to get stuck in your head for days at a time.  Combined with the deliciously bittersweet feeling of nostalgia present in the album's lyrics, this makes for an unexpectedly compelling album, and one you'll want to revisit again and again.  It's easily one of the best albums of 2010.


Rating: 4.5/5


Standout Tracks: "American Slang," "The Diamond Church Street Choir," "Stay Lucky," "Old Haunts"


(Note: I have no idea what the hell is going on with the formatting of this post.  I normally don't have any issues with paragraph breaks and all that.  I've officially lost patience trying to figure it out, though, so you'll just have to deal with it looking a bit weird.)

Review: Deftones - Diamond Eyes

I’ve always thought it was pretty unfortunate that Deftones tends to get lumped in with the nu-metal scene.  Sure, they started their careers right around the same time - and even in the same geographical area - as bands like Korn and Limp Bizkit, and they’ve continued appearing on tour with their supposed peers in the genre as the years have gone by.  But Deftones never did quite fit in.  Sure, they could be just as heavy as any other band in the scene when they wanted to, but beneath the testosterone-fueled riffs, there always seemed to be a bit more substance.  Their melodies were more unpredictable, their riffs more technical, their rhythms more complex, and Chino Moreno’s distinctive vocals lent an almost ethereal quality to the band’s music.  Deftones perfected this mixture of energy and atmosphere on their third full-length, 2000’s White Pony, which proved that even the nu-metal scene was capable of producing music with real depth and emotional weight (and, paradoxically, proved that maybe Deftones wasn’t just another nu-metal also-ran after all).  As great an album as White Pony is, the band has spent the last decade trying to create another album that measured up to its achievement, with mixed results.  To their credit, they haven’t exactly been stuck in a sonic rut, trying to recreate the sounds found on their breakthrough; on the contrary, their following albums have covered a variety of ground, from the dark, vaguely lo-fi brutality of 2003’s self-titled release to the sonic experimentation and progressive leanings found on 2006’s Saturday Night Wrist.  In keeping with this trend, 2010’s Diamond Eyes finds the band shifting directions once more, tightening up their sound into an intense, intricate, and efficient juggernaut.  Does it escape the ever-looming shadow of White Pony?  Maybe not quite.  But it does offer a whole lot nonetheless.

For starters, Diamond Eyes has Deftones playing more tightly than ever.  The whole band locks into riff after propulsive riff, blazing through some of their most technically-challenging material yet.  If anyone ever doubted these guys’ playing ability, songs like “Rocket Skates” and the title track should serve as proof to the unconverted.  Drummer Abe Cunningham shines throughout the album, ably tackling unpredictable time-signature changes and locking in with guitarist Stephen Carpenter’s crushing riffs.  Speaking of Carpenter, the guitar playing on Diamond Eyes is fantastic, featuring some of the heaviest material of the band’s career.  (Of course, the fact that Carpenter made use of an 8-string guitar for roughly half the album, bringing gut-wrenching, Meshuggah-like low notes in abundance, certainly doesn’t hurt in the heaviness department.)  But each riff, no matter how punishing, exists as part of a finely-crafted and, yes, catchy song, buoyed by Chino Moreno’s signature vocal acrobatics. Moreno’s stream-of-consciousness lyrics and Jekyll-and-Hyde approach to singing - consisting of, at just about any given time, either a sigh-like, almost feminine whisper or a blood-curdling shriek - give each song a unique identity and, depending on the song, underscore or starkly contradict the mood set by Carpenter and the rest of the band.  For an idea of the range Deftones display on Diamond Eyes, listen to “Cmnd/Ctrl” and “Sextape” back-to-back.  The former is a raging cyclone of screaming and low-F-sharp-string chugging, while the latter is an ethereal ballad, almost reminiscent of something The Cure or U2 would have come up with twenty years ago.  And they’re both awesome.  The fact that the band can seemingly change identities on a dime like that is what makes them so interesting and satisfying to listen to, and it’s the expert execution of both these identities that makes Diamond Eyes such a compelling album.  It may not be as much of a game-changer to the metal scene as White Pony was back in the day, but it’s hard to complain when the results are still this good.

Rating: 4/5

Standout Tracks:
“Diamond Eyes”
“Sextape”
“Rocket Skates”
“You’ve Seen The Butcher”

Release Date: May 4, 2010

Review: Periphery - Periphery

One of the things that makes metal one of the most interesting genres of music to me is that it’s always changing.  It seems that every few months, a new band will come along and start a new trend in musical style or playing technique, and inevitably, a horde of other bands will follow suit and an entire scene or sub-genre will sprout up practically overnight.  While the trends themselves can be somewhat irritating - God knows not every stylistic bandwagon actually yields any really worthwhile musical output - simply following them and witnessing the evolution of an entire musical culture is fascinating.  In the past year or two, Periphery have almost singlehandedly spawned one of these trends, popularly referred to as “djent” (an onomatopoeic term meant to mimic the style’s signature guitar methodology - distorted, palm-muted, staccato, and highly-syncopated riffing on heavily-detuned guitars, usually seven- or eight-string instruments).  Showing masterful use of the internet hype machine, Periphery’s chief songwriter and general mastermind Misha “Bulb” Mansoor spread his music’s popularity through YouTube videos, forum posts, and even the lumbering dinosaur of MySpace.  This was so effective that Periphery became the most iconic band in the burgeoning djent scene before their debut album was even released - which, naturally, only served to ramp up the hype for the record even more.  So when the band’s self-titled debut finally dropped in April of 2010, was there any possible way it could live up to expectations?  Simple answer: yes - and then some.

Rest assured, there’s no shortage of music on Periphery: the album clocks in at over 70 minutes long, practically twice the length of your average metal LP these days.  But even within that very generous runtime, almost every second is crammed full of more notes than most ears would be able to process at full speed.  These guys can play - there’s no doubt about that.  Fittingly for a band with three guitarists (count ‘em, three: Mansoor, Alex Bois, and Jake Bowen), there’s definitely plenty of shred to go around, ranging from the signature djent sound of chugging, angular, super-low-end riffs to lots of flashy lead playing, mostly of the dissonant, avant-garde variety - there’s very little about the guitar playing on this album that anyone could call “traditional.”  Of course, the bass playing (courtesy of Tom Murphy) is equally impressive in keeping up with the six- and seven-string insanity, and the drum tracks (programmed on the record but reproduced faithfully in the band’s live show by Matt Halpern) provide a frantic, pummeling undercurrent to everything.  However, there are a few moments of subtlety here and there: touches of electronic ambience serve as brief interludes between many tracks, and several songs (notably “Light” and “Ow My Feelings”) have enough dynamic peaks and valleys to let an individual instrumental or vocal part really breathe here and there.  And speaking of vocals, the band’s current singer Spencer Sotello gives a pretty impressive performance, stretching his range from soaring high notes to a guttural hardcore growl.  This is really a world-class assembly of musicians, and every note on the record is played with flair, taste, and a seemingly boundless supply of talent.

But so what if they can play - are the songs any good?  The world is full of technically talented musicians who can’t write a good song to save their lives, after all.  Seemingly against all odds, Periphery sidesteps that pitfall by actually having great, catchy songs with real emotional weight underneath all the shredding.  In between the notes flying at light-speed, there’s always a singable melody or catchy riff.  “Letter Experiment” is at once one of the most crushingly heavy songs on the album and one of the most anthemic, and album closer “Racecar” is a 15-minute epic that cycles through seemingly dozens of rhythm patterns and riffs while never losing its central sense of melody or theme.  (The latter also features a particularly tasty guest guitar solo by Jeff Loomis of Nevermore, which is worth the price of admission alone.)  “All New Materials” and “Jetpacks Was Yes!” are melodic enough to be radio-friendly, while still featuring just as much virtuosic playing as anything on the rest of the album.  Okay, you get the idea.  Periphery have struck a great balance between shameless technical skill and songwriting ability with their debut record, and that makes it an incredibly fun album to listen to.  This should have no trouble satisfying fans of the band’s YouTube videos, at any rate.  Even if Periphery seems a little too ambitious or overwrought for its own good (the word “excessive” comes to mind during certain parts of the album, although for the most part it’s not too overwhelming), it’s still a damn good start for a metal band that’s sure to have a promising future, and that’s already had an undeniable effect on the musical landscape around them.  Keep your eyes on Periphery - if their debut is any indication, they’re sure to keep impressing with future releases.

Rating: 4.5/5

Standout Tracks:
“Letter Experiment”
“Racecar”
“Ow My Feelings”
“All New Materials”

Release Date: April 20, 2010