The Chorus Music Club Society • Page 323

We will all miss you :( Take care of yourself!

 

Very late response but if that’s the band I’m thinking of they’re p bad. Didn’t the drummer start a band called The Not Quite or something?

 

@broken22 and I have agreed on our trade!

They have

Taking Back Sunday: Tidal Wave

and I have

Alkaline Trio: Good Mourning

 

Both excellent albums!

 

Was it shocking to see me recommend TBS for a change, Kevin? lol!

 

I was so very proud since that album introduced you to them

 

Oh man. I hope you are okay.

 

A band that has been on a hiatus for a long time is playing shows again. Who is going to be the lucky person to get their debut next round? Can't wait to share it!

 

Me the last few sessions:

 

Just finished my last exam of my junior year about 20 minutes ago, so it's officially summer for me. Would love to get back in on this!

 

Welcome back! We need a partner for @highfidelity203 if you want to DM them and get on it!

 

If they don’t DM you back @ryanfears, I’ll trade with you. Can’t leave my New Jersey pal behind!

 

With the departure of @Larry David , I would like to ask CMCS to please welcome our two new admins, his stand in, @Davjs , as well as the one who will now fill the open slot left behind when @Michael Schmidt benched; @Patterns in Traffic !

 

Awesome! Sad to see Larry go but I back this.

 

@Chase Tremaine and I Were fated to trade two weeks in a row.

He gave me:
Monty Are I- Wall of People
Wolves At The Gate- Types & Shadows

I in return gave:

Jacks Mannequin- Everything In Transit
Alkaline Trio- Crimson

 

Types and Shadows have really grown on me over the last year, it's their least heavy so I think out of all of Wolves albums, you'll like this one the most.

 

But not more than Wolves the album amirite

 

The Saddest Landscape
Darkness Forgives
2015



I was paired with @CSWAPPO last session and he assigned me the album Darkness Forgives by The Saddest Landscape. I was unfamiliar with The Saddest Landscape prior to that, but based @CSWAPPO told me that it was raw and heavy sounding so that had me intrigued.

I did a bit of background research on the band, as I do with most new bands I'm unfamiliar with, and I discovered that they were formed in 2002 in Boston. They've released five studio albums, of which this is the fifth. They have also released a handful of EPs and splits. It appears that they were an active band from 2002-2005 and again from 2009 to present day and three of their five studio albums have been released since their reformation. Also, their last two studio albums (this album and 2012's After The Lights) were released through Topshelf Records (Prawn, The World Is A Beautiful Place..., etc.) for those of you interested in record labels. Wikipedia gives their genre as screamo, emo, and post-hardcore and I would say that description is pretty accurate.

The album begins with its shortest song Once We Were Immortal. It's a little less than two minutes long and it's a loud, aggressive song. The vocals really take the forefront on this track (and on most of the album to follow). The lead vocalist has a harsh delivery most of the time with vocals that are primarily shouted or yelled. There is some singing and some screaming on the album, but roughly 90% of the vocals are shouted or yelled. I particularly liked the repeated lyric in this song "burn it down and start all over". This was a really good start to the album. The next track, Souls Worth Saving, was one of my favorite tracks on the album. It's another aggressive song and it reminds me of times of Touche Amore, mainly from a vocals standpoint. As a quick aside - the session before this I was paired with @Bad Frequencies and he assigned me the album Existence by the band 20storiesfalling. 20storiesfalling gave off a bit of a Touche Amore vibe at times and the lead vocalist of that band is none other than @CSWAPPO ! I imagine that The Saddest Landscape (and Touche Amore) are big influences for him, or if nothing else, I can see why he enjoys The Saddest Landscape so much! Anyway, I thought that was cool how I reviewed an album one week for a band that @CSWAPPO is a part of and then the following week I had the pleasure of being paired with him.

On to the next track...'Til Our Ears Bleed separates itself a bit from the prior two songs as it slows down a bit during the bridge which is a nice change of pace. There's a bit of singing here which is a bit of a contrast to the prior two songs. Trimmed And Burning reminded me a bit of mewithoutYou, mainly from a vocal standpoint. There's a bit of screaming here too. Musically, I'm reminded a bit of Thursday (not just on this track, but on other tracks too). You Never Asked is next and it's one of my favorite songs on the album. This song slows down a bit in the middle before building back up to a loud bridge. The vocals again remind me a bit of mewithoutYou. A lyric in this song that stuck out to me was "I never thought the end was so near"

All Grace Intact is next, and at almost five minutes it's the longest song on the album to this point. It's another track that is vocally driven, but nothing much has stood out to me on this track yet. The Fire Between Heartbeats is a short, aggressive song, much in the vein of the opening track. Archival is another one of my favorite songs on the album. It has a really nice intro and the gang vocals at the end were a highlight. I really enjoyed the lyrics a lot as well.

The album closes with a pair of songs that each hover around the five minute mark. I enjoyed both tracks, but I wouldn't put either of the songs as one of my favorite tracks on the album. A Heaven Of Amplifiers has an intro to the track that I really enjoyed. The closing track, Admitting You're Alive, contains the lyric "darkness forgives" which puts to the bed the question of where the album's title came from.

All in all, I enjoyed this album, but it's certainly not the most accessible album! I'm a fan of the post-hardcore genre and I enjoyed the vocals a lot, but I can see that it may be a difficult record for some people to get into. It certainly is raw and heavy sounding as @CSWAPPO promised. This is an album I'll be returning to, as I'm sure there are plenty of nuggets left to uncover.

I'd recommend this album to fans of Touche Amore, post-hardcore music, heavier mewithoutYou (more in the vein of A-->B Life), and Thursday.

Tracks I would recommend checking out include Souls Worth Saving, You Never Asked, and Archival.

Thanks for the recommendation @CSWAPPO ! I'll have to check out some more of their discography. What are your favorites?

 

Weird ranking, but I'd rank the wolves albums:

1. Wolves at the Gate - VxV
2. SOTY - Wolves
3. Wolves at the Gate - Captives
4. Rise Against - Wolves
5. Wolves at the Gate - Types and Shadows

all albums are pretty great though.

 

That’s a howl of a list

 

I needed another pun today!

 

hahahahh fantastic. T&S would easily be my #1 here, but it's cool to see your love for VxV! That's the album that got me into the band.

 

@Davjs knows my thoughts on Wolves at the Gate but that’s a good list.