Review Summary: The best mathcore album to ever be released
Mathcore. It's one of the most over the top genres on the planet. Putting an emphasis on tehcnicality and dissonance, it sounds like noise to a person who isnt used to it. But i ***ing love it. And this album right here is my absolute favourite album. A Partial Dialouge Between Ghost and Prest As Read by A Textbook Tragedy (pretentious album titles FTW) is a masterwork of an album. It is completley devoid of anything you would excpect from any regular album, and it is quite different from any other mathcore album, at least any that i've heard.
i think the reason for this is that a textbook tragedy is not afraid of something called melody. whil the melodic sections of this band are few and far between, they are there and act as a barrier between the fits of beutiful noise and dissonance made on this album. The first and last track (Appearence/Accuracies and The Ghost, the Priest, the End respectivly) are great examples of this, but tracks like Stay Classy San Diego and Cynthia: A Mistress also have melodic bridge sections. the mathy parts that dominate this album are equally as impressive. Even attempting to count some of these riffs makes your brain hurt, i cant imagine playing them. But what makes this album really special is the perfect balance between these two elements, the absolutley insane and the absolutley beutiful, that makes this album come together in such a special way.
Let's spend some time talking about the insturments themselves. Everyone in this band is a master of their insturment. The drums are very jazzy and add an interesting twist to the rest of the music. the guitars are very creative, making some of the wierdest riffs i've ever heard through out this album. and just listen to the beggining of Stay Classy San Diego for how good the bass is. but again, balance is the thing that makes this album so good. Everyone in this band knows when to back off and let someone else take the spotlight, it dosent sound like a bunch of 5 year olds hopped up on sugar yelling "LOOK AT ME!!!!!!" like alot of other technical albums.
The vocals, while not really the best vocals i've ever heard, fit the music very well. You can tell there is a lot of emotion going into the vocals, and he seems to know exactly what to do to make the album better. And did i mention this dude is playing guitar while doing all of this ***? I doubt i could play it sitting down in front of my computer playing guitar, so for that i give this man major props.I wish i could comment on the lyrics, but i dont actually own the album (it's out of print, but im an optomist so i'm still searching for a copy). The only lyric i know is "Cynthia, why are you always screaming, tell me why nobody likes you" off Cynthia:A Mistress, so take from that what you will haha
Overall, this is a fantastic ALBUM, meaning that i dont want to recomend any single track because it is something meant to be enjoyed all at once. Listening to this thing front to back will make you love it, because the album is just so well put together and structured that its just amazing. My only problem with this album is that some of the transitions between riffs where a little weak, but other than that, it is a perfect album in my opinion.
This is my first review, so please, any critisism you may have, i would love to hear it.
Go out, get this album, you won't be disapointed
