Review Summary: Jagged pulp sliced in my veins, I write to remember
Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Omar Rodriguez Lopez have a considerable legacy of music that helped to define the last decade, from At The Drive-In's maniacal, post-hardcore tour de force Relationship of Command, all the way through The Mars Volta's progressive berserk of Deloused in the Comatorium and Frances The Mute. All of which are sustained upon Omar's top class guitars and Cedric's non-sensical, balls to the wall rants, that, together, exhaled an energy that no one could top at their time. But, in The Mars Volta ambitions blew through the ceiling with their subsequent albums, resulting in an inflated, too serious shredfest that removed the duo's appeal: complex music that is FUN. And Omar didn't quite liked the way their music was going, which resulted in the band's dissolution.
Various side projects with experimental tendencies were unleashed from this break-up, until it was clear that they were meant to do music together. Furthermore, the live return of At The Drive-In and their new project Antemasque were examples of trying to get back the old fire going back to basics. But the times changed, and there's a plethora of bands that took what the band did and twisted its dynamics to create masterpieces that helped to progress the genre. So, does the At The Drive-In return, in 2017, make that big of a statement?
Well, comeback albums these days are usually panned by fans and critics because they don't reach the bar set by their older albums, bringing new sounds or a recycling the old ones, and, to be honest, At The Drive-In's new record won't change that pattern. But, the difference between in•ter a•li•a and other comeback albums is that, even if it doesn't appeal to everyone, it has a clear message: they're having fun again. From the gargantuan riffs of No Wolf Like The Present until the controlled chaos of Hostage Stamps, the band sound like it never missed a beat.
Considering that in the early years their live shows and albums were cocaine-fueled freakout fests, and these days they're clean from drugs, they still sound fine, even if a little less psychotic. But these songs were clearly meant to play live, and it'll be a blast when they do. Maybe if the record was made two or three years after Relationship of Command it would have a little more variation on the overall songs' structure instead of focusing solely on the energy like it does, and even if all the songs(except for Ghost Tape No. 9, a nice Led Zeppelin inspired ballad that is welcome as a breather close to the end) are bombastic, some lack those twists and turns that distinguishes them from the rest, like the reggae-influenced section of Pattern Against User or the exquisite bursts of Chanbara did in previous records, making a few parts of the runtime blend together. But when it succeeds at making interesting music, it's the proof we needed that At The Drive-In can still be relevant these days, with anthemic songs like Governed By Contagions and Incurably Innocent, and old school flavored ones like the punkish Torrentially Cutshaw and the In/Casino/Out-esque Continuum.
This recovery of the band's old sound hardly sounds forced, even with the absence of former guitarist Jim Ward, which is replaced by Keeley Davis(guitarist in Ward's other band, Sparta). Maybe it's one of the reasons for the lack of the emo influence that Jim had, or it's just another symptom of the members growing old. But the time that passed since the band broke up did some good on their production, which sounds more balanced than the other albums(but the mix on Cedric's vocals aren't that great), even if in terms of standout moments, Omar steals the show all the time with savage riffs.
And if you're coming to a new At the Drive-In LP in 2017 expecting a sequel to Arcarsenal or One Armed Scissor, you may be slightly disappointed. But if you don't, you'll find a consistent album of a band sticking to their guns, and doing it well. Maintaining what they started on Antemasque, Omar and Cedric haven't sounded that inspired and joyous at the same time for almost a decade.
Recommended Tracks:
No Wolf Like The Present
Governed By Contagions
Torrentially Cutshaw
Incurably Innocent
