CD Review: I Am Avalanche - Avalanche United
Maybe it’s the sound of punk maturing, maybe it’s pop punk grabbing a bottle of whiskey and a pack of cigarettes and looking back on itself with older, tired eyes, maybe it’s just a pretty damn good sophomore effort.
rating: 4
So Im alone for the first time in five years, holy f***, things have changed... announces album opener Holy F***, after its feedback laden, rhythm driven, check check American Sex Pistols intro before it bursts itself open into an energetic and running slice of punk rock. Its been six years since I Am The Avalanches first album, a band formed on the tail end of a failed relationship with a bad break up, and the second album in opens with a track looking back on getting through a divorce. Its an assessing of the situation, of how things went wrong and how the things have changed, and how front man and lyricist Vinnie Caruana (formely of The Movielife and Head Automatica) has sorted out (his) tragic life. Speaking in turn to a former spouse, himself, his band and the things that got him through. Its reflectively bitter and hopeful for the future, its pop punk and its post hardcore; and it lays out the blueprint for this album. Lyrically, Vinnie travels on from here through the album, alongside the band (comprised of guitarists Brandon Swanson, formerly of Further Seems Forever and Michael Ireland, bassist Kellen Robson of Scraps and Heart Attacks and drummer Brett Ratt Romnes) who nicely underpin (with a blend of NOFX punk rock aggression, Blink 182 pop punk melody and post-hardcore raw emotion) the albums retrospective themes of youth gone by, the New York they call home, lost friends, new love, anxiety and plenty of odes to friends, family, being in a band on the road and getting drunk with friends, family and whilst being a band on tour. Plus one song about a gravedigger who finds closure in burying his wife; because why not?
From the storming opener were dropped into an early album highlight, and clear runaway for lead single for the album, Brooklyn Dodgers. It starts off all tense and melodic post-hardcore guitars and vocals before almost immediately, and with a real sense of immediacy, the uplifting chorus breaks in, and its anthemic, and its catchy, bound to be a sing along song live, especially when theres time for a gang chant and woah laden middle eight. Ending on an extra shout along chorus and the tiniest tease of a breakdown for the outro. The pace keeps up for Amsterdam, a real celebration of being best friends and being in a band, and doing the things that boys in bands do, young or old. Though perhaps more than anything perhaps, its an ode, if not a straight up punk love song, to Amsterdam. Especially by the halfway mark when things slow down and the guitars become melodic walls, as for a moment at least becomes a heavy ballad for the streets of the city, and no doubt its nightlife, before the raucous first half comes back to bring it to a frantic close. And this reveal of a softer side, even it is for a city and the hallucinogens and nightlife it may offer, opens the floodgates for the three way of emotion that follows. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wxi51RvbL4 Ill Be Back Around, Is This Really Happening?, and This Ones on Me all bring in the softer side of the band and this album, in their own way at least. Ill Be Back Around coming somewhere between a statement of intent and a plea for help (seemingly by Vinnie to himself and to anyone else who can relate to this) that One day well be perfect... One day therell be no pills or hospital visits... One day well sleep safe and sound... and to be free from anxiety, promising to one day be back around. Then as if by stark contrast to the albums start of looking back on divorce, we find ourselves in a place where romance is blossoming with Is This Really Happening?, an honest to God love song, not addressed to a city, but a lady, and the kind of gal whos a golden ticket. As the chorus asks in disbelief if its really happening, but in doing so tells us it really is; the suns finally shining down on me...the snows actually melting in front of my face. Accompanied by some of the albums most melodic moments in the vocal melodies, in the gang vocal choir like woahs and especially the lead guitar work into the outro. Excessive drinking is well in order this evening and a bass line that brings to mind Thin Lizzy at their Boys are Back in Town best, might not seem like the classic opening to a song Ive deemed the third in an heartfelt trilogy, but This Ones on Me is a song for friends, family and the people you love outside of these and getting drunk and waking up every morning in your girls bed. Its a real song of camaraderie, and its the drunk punk song thatll have you telling your best friends (or that stranger youve just met or not even spoken to next you) that you love them too. That kind of emotional. And so we move into the dark movement of the album, weve had punk rock passion, but the next trilogy is a darker aggression. Dont go expecting a sudden breakdown of metal and hardcore proportions but the way Alkaline Trio get dark but with early AFI instrumentation, though not as goth inflected, and perhaps most closely to NOFXs angrier moments where they touch on the dark side of sound. Who by coincidence get a name drop in the first of this trilogy; Dead Friends a song that deals with friends lost early on, through suicide, and living with the memory of life before they left and when they went away, its sombre, its angry but its nostalgic too for the good times. Youve Got Spiders is the albums outright fuck you song, its angsty, it hates you and it wants you to know. Though not really you of course, weve learned by now I Am The Avalanche love their friends, their family and of course their fans (and maybe a multitude of other F wors including that one). In Vinnies own words This is a song about the people youre ashamed to be in the human race with. See, its not all fond memories, friends, drink and love; loss and anew. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oprhw5BL4gY Speaking of which we get The Gravediggers Argument, as you might have guessed the aforementioned song about the gravedigger burying his wife for closure on him her. Whilst Dead Friends was dark from loss and mourning, and Youve Got Spiders worked on a dark but passionate aggression of frantic rises and intimate and intense falls, The Gravediggers Argument is possibly the heaviest song on the album to fit in with its (perhaps tongue in cheek) morbid and macabre story, but fuck its fun, and it blasts by in two minutes seven seconds (the shortest on an album that only twice makes an outreach to three minutes fiftyish). As if by channelling the Misfits, and you have to wonder if they know it, especially when Anthony Raneri of Bayside guest vocals and comes over all Glenn Danzig croon, or given the tone of his voice like the bastard love child or middle man between Danzig and Davey Havok. And were back in familiar punk rock territory with Caseys Song, a melodic and damn happy ode a friend of Vinnies who works at sea for the military, its a happy and sweet dedication that refers to him in jest as Iron Man, its another nice pop punk song for the people the band love. The Place You Love is Gone is a quite standard punk song, but its done with a passion and energy this band do well, with the lyrical theme of taking things for granted and living for now, a nice penultimate message to the album. Gratitude as you mightve guessed signs off the album with a thank you, and its a great song to end the album with, throwing essentially the entire album before it into a sack, kicking the shit out of it and letting it out, but in the nicest possible way. Its almost psychobilly or punkry (punk country I just made that up), its almost happy, its almost sad, its stop start, great rhythm changes and some of the heaviest riffs of the album, before fading out on broken down feedback and a chant of Avalanche United. Its proud, its raw and its grateful. This album isnt groundbreaking, but it never promises to be, if youre familiar with American punk, youll be familiar with the sound of this band, but thats not the point, this band do this with a passion and they openly wear the bands that influenced them on their sleeves (and you may on occasion swear blind familiarity), but its the honesty and the song craft that shines through and it makes it their own. Maybe its the sound of punk maturing, maybe its pop punk grabbing a bottle of whiskey and a pack of cigarettes and looking back on itself with older, tired eyes, maybe its just a pretty damn good sophomore effort. I Am Avalanche is available now on Amazon.