Review Summary: This isn't the worst album of all time, but it's close. Terrible lyrics coupled with sloppy instrumentals on almost all fronts accented by the worst production I've heard off of a record label like Epitaph.
Garnering any mainstream success for a political punk band is quite a statement. With bands like Anti-Flag, Rise Against, and (to a much lesser degree) Against Me! putting out singles which garner a fair amount of airplay, its safe to say that political punk has become an increasingly marketable good. Pennywise has always been a political band, make no bones about it, and they were probably the first political punk band to actually make any sort of impact on the mainstream, achieving moderate levels of popularity with their 2001 effort
Land of the Free. Unfortunately, after producing a stream of solidly constructed albums, even while being completely unoriginal, [/i]From the Ashes[/i] explores no new musical territory and turns out to be poorly performed even at its peak moments.
The first issue that is blatantly noticeable on
From the Ashes is the absolutely derivative and preachy lyrics. While never a band to be very original lyrically, especially on the topic of politics, this album is absurdly dunderheaded in that department. Nearly every one of the albums 14 songs deals with socio-political issues in one form or another, from the more direct (“Rise Up”, “Holiday in the Sun”) to the slightly more veiled (“Yesterdays”, a song about how the past more peaceful times are better than the state of the world currently). The problem with the lyrics is not necessarily their nature, but their content, which is over the top and preachy, as well as just being completely stupid. A line from “God Save the USA” reads as a manifesto of idiocy:
What's the CIA and the NRA?/They're all the same - just the names are changed. Honestly, why does anyone let this man vote?
Musically,
From the Ashes is, to put it lightly, a derivative sh
itheap. A basic formula can be applied to basically any song on this album (barring an exception or two): Take a chord progression from Bad Religion (preferably
Suffer-era), throw it in front of a 200-bpm drum beat with the occasional interesting fill, and then have the bass chug along with the guitars while adding in a fill every couple of chord changes. There is honestly nothing about the musically that I can find enjoyable. The guitars chug along at a predictable pace, rarely using anything aside from the same power chords. The drums are alright, but are massively overrated and really don’t do much interesting enough to hold the song together anyway, and the bass is just so lackluster that its hard to even enjoy the pseudo-bass solos on tracks like “Now I Know”. Aside from the obvious “departures” (I use the term as loosely as possible) of “Falling Down”, “This is Only a Test”, and “Yesterdays, every song blends together and provides for an all together unenjoyable experience. Really, this album is more formulaic than at least half of the albums that die-hard Pennywise fans trash for being “too emo”.
But, perhaps the worst part of the entire album is the terrible production that doesn’t let up over the course of the album’s 41 minute run time. For being a semi-popular punk band, you would think that like many of their contemporaries, Pennywise would actually at least get the production right, but they even fail to do that. Bands like NOFX and Unwritten Law have proved that having good production can really compensate for not being the most talented musicians in the industry.
From the Ashes is probably the most unlistenable album in terms of production qualities. The guitars use the same tone over the course of the entire album, while the drums are almost completely drowned out of the mix, which is probably the biggest flaw of the production. The bass, while not completely drowned out sounds almost split, being both heavy and booming while trying to keep a certain level of bounce, but failing to do either with much effectiveness. Jim Lindberg’s vocals, while never being anything really special, suffer a great deal on this recording. The triple tracking method does not suit his voice at all and instead makes it sound meek and lame, instead of passionate as was the case on their previous releases.
From the Ashes as a whole is disappointing. Actually, disappointing would imply that it might actually be good in any capacity. I’ll be frank: this shi
t sucks a tremendous amount. Even for people who enjoy fast political punk like myself, this album is the musical equivalent of a full colostomy bag and should be avoided at all costs. In fact, the only reason why you should ever buy a copy of this album is if you need a Frisbee for a party and the local FYE is out of James Blunt and Aiden.
Recommended Tracks: Yesterdays, all of their self-titled album.
and throwing it out the window. Hey, I stole it anyway. They love preaching about evil corporations while making DUMB profit from the same corporations... like Vans, who they practically work for anyways.
