Review Summary: One of the best pure metalcore albums to come out in the last 10 years. My pockets itch.
In order to properly convey the massive amounts of aggression and cathartic rage that is the output of
Ghost of the Salt Water Machine, your mild-mannered reviewer has decided to take some "substances" that will properly allow me to "review" this "album".
Architect, a band whose primary goals in music is deafness and bruises. If they were a country, their primary export would be "f*ck you". This is some serious metalcore (As in
Converge, not
Killswitch Engage). If I could remember how to use Wikipedia, I'd let you know where they're from... let's just go with Florida. Florida sounds good. I really wish my keyboard would stop moving.
While some other stalwarts of the genre oh god there's spiders under my skin oh god oh god....
Maybe this wasn't such a hot idea.
Anyway, while some other stalwarts of the genre have tended to incorporate melody (
Cave In,
Converge,
Coalesce),
Architect looks at melody with the kind of contempt that's usually reserved for historical genocides or Fox News. Throughout the nine tracks the consistent theme is brutality. Terrifying, terrifying brutality that never lets up. It never stops. Even when you scream at it, plead with it, try to reason with it... it just doesn't stop. It will not stop. Not until it has seen you and everyone you love burned to the ground and pissed on your ashes.
And, in that way, it's not much different than Dick Cheney.
I'm certain I loved this album before trying to review it. I know I picked it for a reason. All I know right now is that my curtains have somehow changed material, and I'm positive my floor is made of pudding.
Each of the riffs has its own catchy quality, progressing songs in a way that makes perfect sense and everything fits together neatly. Despite where songs go, the thematic consistency on the disc is hugely universal, but for some reason I seem to have just heard a poorly sung version of "America the Beautiful"... man, I must be
really out of it right now, ha ha! Let me just skip back really quick and see what was actually...
Oh. That's actually in there. What the f*ck,
Architect?
Overall, I have to highly recommend
Ghost of the Saltwater Machine if for nothing else, then for its display that dynamics don't have to be bold-faced to be effective, and subtle changes can sometimes be as effective as dramatic shifts if put in the hands of songwriters who understand sonics. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to throw up and get a ride to the hospital...
