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Month: May 2003

All Against Adam — S/t EP

This album starts out with sounds of a thunderstorm rolling in. Some people don’t like thunderstorms, most are just ok with them, and some love them. That twelve-second intro sets a good analogy towards the entire album. I’m just ok with thunderstorms and All Against Adam.

The first riff introduces “She Needs Me” with a clichéd guitar run with placed drop-ins of bass and drums. The high, warbling, we’ve-heard-this-all-before vocals jump in, and we find that they like to go for soaring vocal lines (lead and backup) for their not-so-deep lyrics. They are mostly about relationships, but without a poetic tact that sets some bands apart. “Girl In Green” shows some promise, not in instrumentation (which isn’t cliched this time but still not completely original), but in vocals, with a catchy melody and effective backup vocals. The line “Girl In Green” is always sung a cappela , creating a fresh, darker feel. ‘Sensitivity’ gives us a moody, ethereal intro that had me waiting for the problems to start, and I was surprised to find that they didn’t. This is my favorite song on the album, as it held my interest with its moody, restrained groove. After a return to pop-punk cliché’s in “Lost Cause”, they impart on us “One Last Chance”. A heavy, dark punk tune, it including a foray into screamed backup vocals, which were unexpected, but done with taste. The melody on this is my least favorite, as it sounds strained, too high and a tad off-beat at times. The lyrics are worthy of a song of this nature, and probably the best on the album.

I sense there is creativity to be mined in this band. They just need to have someone tell them what’s been done before and what hasn’t. Their darker music intrigues me more than their opposite end of the spectrum, because (I know this by being in a band) it is hard to write original pop-punk. The well is empty, the mine explored. There is promise for AAA, but right now the product is rough. 5 out of 10