Review Summary: Evolution at its finest.
I think it’s time we revisit the debut album
Relativity by
Emarosa. My fellow sputnikers, if you actually take a glance at the soundoffs for this album, you have a few users scratching their heads in retrospect wondering why the rating doesn’t reflect the art. I would like to give a brief crash coarse on why this is and debunk this sputnik mystery. I apologize in advanced If I’m not suppose to discuss the semantics of the website and thus breaking the 4th wall.
Circa 2007,
Emarosa was just another band that got their big break and just wrapped up recording their seven track debut EP,
This Is Your Way Out. It was your typical metalcore album made in 2007. That’s right, it sounded just like
The Devil Wears Prada. And if that doesn’t sum it up, before they were
Emarosa, they were a juvenile garage band that expelled more effort into writing song names than actual music.
Too Close for Missiles, I'm Switching to Guns and
Utah, But I'm Taller. That one was a crowd favorite at the Lexington County Fair.
Point being, when Jonny Craig joined the band the next year, the fans weren’t too receptive. They were bombarded with hate mail and heckled on stage at concerts because the last thing you want to do is piss off a metalcore fan who just accidentally roundhouse a twelve year old girl in the face with a hello kitty backback in the moshpit. Jonny Craig in an interview even addressed the controversy stating that
Relativity was simply an effort to create something completely different. And he even criticized former vocalist Chris Roetter, claiming he literally stole notes from Underoath. Johnny hit the nail on the head like he was hitting an opioid.
Relativity is one of the most original albums in the genre in my opinion. And their last EP couldn’t have sound more recycled and lackluster. Good for him for calling out a man who has wiggled his way around as many different bands than he has.
But seriously,
Relativity was a breakthrough from the norm. An unprecedented sound that transcended the vast horizon of their respective monotonous genre. The elusive aesthetics of
Emarosa’s new sound struck me into a daze. Ten years ago when I first heard this album, the guitar was keyed to an odd tone I have never heard before, the fast timing of the drums, and
my god the bellowing shrieks of a prime Jonny Craig which is arguably his best effort on an album paved the way for experimental post-hardcore.
Relativity didn’t sound like pop-punk, it sure as hell wasn’t metalcore, and it was too heavy to be considered alt rock. It was almost as if this band invented a new style of post-hardcore. And that’s not even mentioning how flawless the production was on the album. This album is so important even if it did abort another
" band that sounds like prada, dude!"
