If anyone's hitting any of the upcoming west coast shows with The Fall Of Troy: my band will also be playing :) :)
I put on First Temple for the first time in a while today, and I think I'm convinced this is the best album to come out of the late 2000s post-hardcore scene. It sounds incredibly fresh. If this came out today, I'd be absolutely floored. Every song is unique. The melodies are top tier, and Manny's backing vocals are such a nice touch. Today it struck me that the production is absolutely crazy. At any point in time during a song I can focus on vocals, drums, lead guitar, rhythm guitar, and bass. Bass especially cuts through the mix much better than a lot of their contemporaries. I'm honestly not sure what was in the water with this one. I've listened to other Crummett records, specifically his DGD stuff, and no doubt those are clean, but something about this album sounds much more real and less sheen on it, but still sounds immaculate. Anyway. I think it's one of my favorite albums of all time now. Can't remember the last time I revisited an album I knew I loved and was blown away as much as I was with this one.
It's nuts how many bands in this general realm Crummett was involved with. Another under-the-radar one from the late aughts was Kaddisfly - Set Sail the Prairie. Fantastic record and great production, though maybe a hair less pristine than this one. IIRC in previous Crummett talk here, some dislike him for brickwalling and such, which is valid. But I have to say, given that almost everything rock has been brickwalled for 25 years, his better mixes sound about as good as it gets without going back into the 90s golden age that used modern digital tools but retained more dynamic range (something like 3EB's self titled). Also, I find it depressing how rock production in general seems like it's either stalled or regressed, even for individual producers. I mean, Crummett mixed and mastered Pantheon, and it sounds pretty bad IMO compared to DBM from almost 20 years ago. Not just stylistic choices I dislike, it's also undeniably muddier. I don't really understand how or why this happens.
First Temple had so many great earworms. Excellent album. I remember being floored by Penance and the Patience and then loving First Temple. Wish I had seen them when they came back to the states recently.
First Temple is a masterpiece and it does feel like a tragedy that the band didn’t build off of it. IMO they lost a lot of momentum by the time Pink Lemonade finally came out and it’s also not the direction most of their fans wanted. The album has a few good tracks but I rarely return to it. I do love a lot of Soft Hell but nothing will ever top First Temple for me.
First temple is the best overall, but I think the direction of pink lemonade is my favorite, they just didn't nail it as perfectly
Having just been on tour with these guys earlier this year and seeing them 10 nights in a row the Soft Hell songs are easily my favorite to see them play and subsequently that’s the album I reach for when I want to listen to them
This is me I think. Soft Hell is generally really good, but the in your face progressive style of First Temple is basically my favorite genre of music, so while I didn’t like PL at all, Soft Hell definitely brought me back in, but it just isn’t a style that resonates QUITE as well with me as First Temple.
Also the production on Temple is so good but Soft Hell’s production is pretty mixed IMO but I’m assuming that’s due to cost? Imagine a song like Better Hell getting the same treatment as a song like Vanguard.. Just sayin’
Is it known if he’s still in the band and just can’t do the tour? The two guitar parts are pretty important to their sound so I wonder how they’re handling that live
do they even play their old songs much i wonder just comparing the vocals on the latest release to the early release and assuming it cant be done anymore