On The Last Day
Meaning In The Static
5.2
‘Imagine the darkness of AFI and Aiden, mixed with the post-hardcore adrenaline of Rise Against and Thrice. Add a four-part vocal harmony with contagious choruses filled with heartbreak, loss, and betrayal, and you’re just getting started…’~~Victory PR write-up.
For some of you, you’ve just ended. Reading this review, that is. Thanks for stopping in anyway.
Hey, you can take that any way you want, but don’t you like reviews that tell you what you’re in for right off the bat? Okay then. I don’t have a problem with these kinds of emo-ish hardcore bands, in fact some of them can be pretty damn entertaining. I wouldn’t say On The Last Day are bad, but wow, I almost feel like I’m dangling raw meat in front of hungry wolves right now by reviewing this here. Meaning In The Static is the type of disc that once you’ve heard the first three songs, you’ve basically got the gist of the entire album, and maybe that will be enough for you.
We sure get four-part vocal harmonies, alright. Never ending vocal harmonies; a clean mid-range, a more typical scream, and a couple flat nondescript filler voices to round things out are nearly constantly just wailing away, with a few melodic/chugging segues here and there to break things up. I’m not sure if it’s a poor mix issue, or a style choice, but all the vox are set at different levels, and hardly any of them actually sound good. It wouldn’t be such a problem if they flowed together a little better, soundwise, and there are times when many harmonies are going and none of them are taking control of the reins to help keep things focused due to the uneven presentation.
I’d like to see what they can come up with once they wash that black shit out of their hair, wipe the mascara off, and stop posturing so much, because these guys can write some pretty catchy stuff despite being so uniformly carbon-copy in appearance. But we don’t grade for fashion here, otherwise I’d be out. So anyway, the riffs are of the commercially standard, uptempo melodic hardcore variety, with some occasional heavier chugs thrown in for a bit of heft. Not too much heft, however, and unfortunately many of these tracks sound entirely too much alike, depleting the key moments which could set the tunes apart from each other a bit better. What else do you need to know? Not much.
Short and sweet, On The Last Day aren’t bad for what they do, and they fit perfectly on the Victory roster, and Meaning Of The Static will more than likely be a very successful CD for them, because there will most definitely be a rabid audience for the band to perform for. They’re entertaining and lively enough, but as far as this genre goes, this album is simply average and basic, so check out a few tunes on their website before you decide to invest any cash into this.
