At The Drive-In - in•ter a•li•a (May 5, 2017) Album • Page 13

more like branch in they became a caricature of all the shitty music they inspired, that album is far worse than this and i think this is pretty bad

 

As a big TMV fan who was never that into ATDI to begin with... this is at least more interesting than the Antemasque thing they put out a few years ago. Will give it a more careful listen soon probably.

 

antemasque was awful yeah

 

I'd take this over antemasque, and I'm only 5 songs in. I just can't take this seriously at all. Omar's guitar stuff is sick, but Cedric sounds so unconvincing. I'll finish the record and be done with it for good, I bet.

 

I agree with pretty much all of this. Although it's a reasonably enjoyable listen and I certainly don't 'hate' it, I also find it really hard to separate my enjoyment from my cynicism over why this record even exists. To that end, I thought Steve Hyden's review was actually pretty on-point: On The New 'in•ter a•li•a," At The Drive-In Rehashes Itself

 

I'd say 3.5-4/10 honestly. Something about this is just so sterile and without conviction. I didn't have high hopes so at least I'm not disappointed.

 

i'd say something to keep in mind, is that cedric had nodes on his vocal chords a couple years ago and possibly had to have surgery to fix it, or at least a lot of vocal rest, and after being out of the mars volta and not touring regularly, unfortunately i think he is starting over with his voice and relearning how to sing again. so, you could think of this as a debut record of sorts for them, or a restart, more than a follow up to RoC. considering that cedric doesn't have his full range back, i think his passion on the album is indeed convincing, and that it probably will get better from here. if touring will strengthen his voice instead of exhausting it. at least i hope so, for the eventual mars volta reunion, because there is no way he would be able to make it through a mars volta set right now. i think they are even playing older songs a half step down on tour right now.

not to say that, an album should be defined by a handicap, but, it helps me understand where he is at vocally, and i think his performance is rather impressive based on those things. the music is pretty great, but the production can be a little too purposely noisy. i have a crappy bluetooth speaker at work that plays most albums fine, but all i can hear when i play this is cedrics vocals, and staticy guitars with no bass cutting through at all.

even with all that stuff going on, i do like record a lot and think that everyone should give it a few good listens, because the songs grow on you a lot, and it's very solid. it may seem simple or uninspired at first, but the songwriting quality is there. i thought governed by contagions was kinda boring at first, but it grew on me so much i'd rank it up with the memorability and quality of one armed scissor.

 

If this was a debut record from a new band I probably wouldn't listen to that band again. Just saying.

 

this is so bad

 

I still like it. And Antemasque. To each their own, I guess.

 

I think its alright. Instrumentation is fun, lyrics are dumb but its good and loud. Not a record I'm going to love, but a fine enough way to spend 35 minutes.

It's not a patch on the latest Refused record though - that was genuinely brilliant. Gonna go to my grave defending that one.

 

christ y'all

 

Yea I'm still really enjoying this record for what it is- a fun romp. It's maybe a bit too polished and by the numbers for them but it's still very fun imo.

Also I do quite like Antemasque haha I think I just like anything these guys put out, the only thing I don't I think is Bosnian Rainbows but I've only listened to it once when it first came out so I might like it more if I went back to it.

 

Like I said yesterday, I'm far from an ATDI guru, so I don't have a good feel for how disappointing this record really is or isn't. But some of the reasoning for why it's so awful -- namely, that it's by the numbers and a "cash grab" -- seem like they could easily apply to a ton of comeback records that haven't been received anywhere near this poorly. Saosin's LP last year comes to mind.

 

Starting my first listen now. Hopes are low

 

Calling this or Saosin's thing a cash grab is stupid. I don't care for either, I'd pick the Saosin over this anyday, but both feel kinda empty.

 

Continuum is cool.

Tilting is pretty good too. I'm not paying attention to the lyrics going through but there are some solid melodies.

Governed is so bad

 

I thought the opening to Governed by Contagions was a Static-X song. I wish I couldn't make that comparison.

Also, I bought the record at my local record store and thought I'd get the "indie store exclusive" and I instead for the /6,000 variant. It was a sad day because I would have just waited to buy it if I knew that would happen.

 

That album wasn't bad

 

I gotta disagree here. It was very forgettable. I legit forgot it even happened when it was brought up. Had to look it up and then I remembered lol.

 

I don't think it was awful or anything either. I'm just saying that the same logical criticisms could've been leveled against it, in terms of their (likely) motives for making it and not trying to really do anything inventive for 2017.

 

Current opinion: I could do without the first 3 tracks, the rest of it kicks ass.

 

should've kept jim ward

 

a. Saison never broke up they just lost a singer and couldn't find a new one

b. they never came out and explicitly said their renewed activity was for money. ATDI did when they reunited

 

and I mean saosin is significantly less important than atdi, they have no legacy outside of the scene and even in the scene they aren't held up nearly as high as other bands. they were never THAT good to begin with. so yeah, standards were different, different bands are held to different standards it's not all that weird