As you may or may not have noticed, it is BTBAM week-ish time here on the b-side. Today we have their album "Alaska," which, in my mind, is the album where the band moved from a technical metalcore sound to the more random nature of music they currently play. My copy of "Alaska" is on clear vinyl, as it was the most available for purchase at a reasonable price. The album begins with a highlight, "All Bodies." The song itself is unrelenting and technical, recalling "the Silent Circus." The next track, the titular "Alaska," features a guitar player's dream of an intro, with sweep picking galore. The lyrics are written in a stream-of-consciousness style which shows a uniqueness in Tommy's writing. i always enjoyed his lyrics, as they are straight-forward, but at the same time, not overt or simplistic, leaving room for interpretation. This song is another favorite of mine.
The third showcases the band's myriad influences, featuring many different brands of metal, hardcore, whatever thrown together in a convincing and downright listenable manner. "Croakies and Boatshoes" is a song lampooning, in my opinion, the party culture and clique mentality of my vapid and meaningless generation. The song really stands out to me due to Tommy's use of near-pig squeal vocals throughout parts of the song. Another favorite is the breakneck speed of the double-bass drumming underneath the music. Then things slow down, bringing in a sludgy feel to the song, before picking things back up and building to the end.
The epic "Selkies: the Endless Obsession" follows. There is a reason that this song is one of the band's most well-known and loved songs: it rules and shows their instrumental and songwriting talents. An off-time keyboard and guitar riff start the song out, then we have a clean vocal portion before the band blasts in for more technical trashing which picks the speed up. We trash for a minute or two and then bring in a lone piano and some drumming. We get a nice reprieve with clean vocals and atmospheric guitars before an EPIC outro guitar solo. This song exemplifies many of the band's influences: metal, electronic, i don't know, alternative rock, and even jazz. It's the BTBAM amalgamation that we have come to know and love.
The instrumental "Breathe In, Breathe Out" follows. This is a short clean guitar number which serves as the (airy, spare, and refreshing) eye of the hurricane, to use a cliched analogy for a band which usually avoids said cliches.
"Roboturner" starts out with a frantic scream and the band blasts in at full speed. The beating continues on for a minute and a half before slowing briefly, only to punch with the other hand, the few feet of flat track before the roller coaster car drops again, leading to a breakdown which would be at home on any number of metalcore releases, before giving out to a mini-bass solo. The band then slows it down for the ending, a nice break from the mostly-flat-out pace of the song. Still heavy, though. And, another bass solo!
"Backwards Marathon" starts heavy and fast, speeds up and features Tommy spitting (i think) words like a madman. Then, the bands slows it down for Tommy to let us know that "it feels weird." Again, the lyrics stand out to me, as they are words i wouldn't think about using in a song. Not specifically poetic, but not obvious or cliched, either. The band then breaks it down for a Southern-metal sounding portion before bringing in the clean guitars and vocals for a beautiful and haunting refrain of "it's raining." The band then begins to bring in the guitars and build back up to repeat the intro to the song before giving way to another "pretty part" with a guitar solo(!). Another highlight of the album.
A second instrumental, "the Medicine Wheel," follows as track 8. This track is similar to "Breathe In...," but features drums, keyboards and bass, as well. Another airy, moody, organic piece that can easily be called "beautiful."
The ninth song on the album is "The Primer." Beginning the song is a great piece of guitar playing, which is then replaced with another piece of pummeling metal by BTBAM. Again, as with other songs, this piece moves between sections and parts, showing influences and originality at such a fast pace that you don't have time to figure out if they like Dream Theater, Black Flag, Black Sabbath, the Beatles, Converge, Bob Dylan, or Minor Threat. Or all of them. Or none of them. Either way, another ripper of a song which really shows off the guitar playing. In fact, the ending of the song features dual lead guitars and a vocal refrain of "2005: welcome to perfection!"
"Autodidact." Riffs and breakdowns, baby. Also, weird, nearly-inaudible backing vocals at one point. Then, a quiet part with a galloping bass line which then descends and brings in the guitar. Keyboards, too. Full band roar for a while. Frantic drumming bleeds into a slooooww, HEAVY breakdown.
The instrumental, Latin-flavored "Laser Speed" closes out the album on a mellow note which belies the heaviness of this album: it's heavy, alright. Diverse enough not to be just another "metalcore" album, though, and a sign of things to come for BTBAM to be sure. Check it out!
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