Review Summary: A category F5 whirlwind of intensity and destruction.
“We are the voice of a broken generation. Kicked out and beaten down. Religions all have failed us now. Retaliating against the old with this bitter taste in our mouths. Left alone, Naked and Cold.”
The apocalypse.
In the Christian bible, found in the Book of Revelation, it foretells a time when mankind will reject the Son of God, when Satan himself will rule this world. For any God-fearing man, this is a scary notion to behold. Mankind, in his stupidity and ignorance, will persecute the followers of Christ and through it the so called ‘Antichrist’ and his prophet will rise to power through any means, whether it be by politics are warfare. With this, the world will fall into darkness and despair. But for those who have also understood this, it also represents the second coming of Christ, when He descends from heaven onto the earth once again in glory to judge the human race in their final moments. So through all this bleakness, Revelations also finds hope through the desperation.
Advent embodies a different perspective of Christian hardcore. Instead of subtle references to Jesus Christ and Apologetic messages scattered throughout their songs, Advent is unabashedly proud of their faith and are willing to challenge anyone who would question it. The band member’s history stretches farther then just Advent, as three of the members (vocalist Joe Musten, guitarist Matt Harrison, and bassist Jonny Smrdel) were all previous band members to the now defunct post-hardcore band, Beloved. After a mutual breakup of the aforementioned band, Musten, Harrison and Smrdel decided to carry on the ‘hardcore’ part of Beloved and created Advent through the ashes of its demise. Being quickly signed to their parent label, Solid State, Advent released their debut album, Remove the Earth, which certainly didn’t lack for intensity but was sonically difficult to fully listen to, with some repetitive and redundant guitar riffs and a fairly exasperated sounding Musten barking in the background. A year later, Advent comes back to the studio and releases their sophomore album Naked and Cold.
One of the intentions of Naked and Cold was to make a sonically destructive and overtly ‘scary’ album and right from the opening ‘Intro’ into ‘
Nothing’ we can notice one major aspect of this album right from the get go; this will definitely make scene kids piss their pants. Advent has taken all the flaws that plagued Remove the Earth and didn’t necessarily redefine their sound, but have massively refined it. This album absolutely crushes from start to finish, the production is nearly gone; this causes the tone of the guitars to come out extremely distorted and crunchy and gives the bass a live ‘pop’ to the end product. Guitarists Harrison and Mike Rich never let up; from the twister-like riffing found in ‘
Overcome’ to the ‘heavy-as-the-earth’ breakdowns found in ‘
Revival’ they constantly barrage and pound the listener into a pulp.
But one of the most impressive improvements found in Naked and Cold is the frontman himself, Joe Musten. For those familiar with his work in Beloved, he was the most integral part of the band giving them the ‘hardcore’ part of their genre with his yells. In Advents debut, Mustens voice became quite the chore to listen to, with his voice becoming more of a hardcore ‘scream’ then a yell. But in Naked and Cold we finally see Musten finding his niche on his vocals. Instead of trying to be separate with the band, Musten now utilizes his voice to follow along with the pounding assault of the guitars and also sounds much more confident in his abilities as a hardcore vocalist. His voice resonates deeply throughout the entire record, never lets up, and never offers any respite.
Ad•vent: (noun) the coming of Christ on Judgment Day.
This dictionary definition of Advent is added to put this record into perspective. Advent channels all the negativity, death and destruction that precedes the end of times into a musical form. Desperation, hopelessness, and no mercy for all ways of describing Naked and Cold; it continuously spirals like an F5 tornado, stuffed to the brim full of intensity and brutality. It is such a treat to know that bands can start out average or even subpar and can take the problems that plague one album and turn it around into forming a truly exceptional album. Advents future can only start to look bright from this point on.
