Love me some Bayside, and I've always thought his distinctive vocals and their specific guitar tones unfairly leads some people to thinking they sound more consistently the same than other bands.
There’s a few bands who could put out new stuff and I’d recognize the band without seeing title, artist etc because of having their own sound. Bayside is at the top of this list. It’s a strength, to me. They’ve actually incorporated a lot of influences in the last couple records while retaining their signature sound overall. Impressive IMO. They’re still doing it nearly 20 years on, so I guess it’s working out for them... and for us. :)
And I should have added, this song absolutely shreds, and his vocals sound as strong as they ever have.
I think everyone saying this being one of the heavier, riffier songs from Bayside is the way it’s different from most of their discography. I don’t get how you can’t hear that from listening to the song, but to each their own.
This is far heavier than the large majority of their catalogue. This band uses all sorts of different elements in their songwriting from showtunes to you name it. I’ve always thought the criticism of them sounding too samey is unfair, and usually coming from people who haven’t really spent much time with their catalogue.
I’d say you’re both right here - the heavy riff is definitely a left turn, but Anthony’s vocal melody in the chorus and Jack’s bridge solo are Bayside 101
not sure that's true, because i have a tattoo of the Japanese symbol for enlightenment on my other buttcheek.
If anyone wants to join in on the music forum discussions, we recently had this poll about the band. Weekly Poll: Favorite Bayside Album • forum.chorus.fm