Review Summary: But it's Fun!! (Squidward Voice)
The current state of metalcore bands sees most artists either taking themselves too seriously, trying to abandon metalcore and find solace within top 40 rock radio or writing the most generic, half-baked songs in hopes to recapture their 2000’s/Myspace glory days. Avoid is a refreshing take on the genre, often parodying popular trends, genre-hopping and most importantly, having fun and not taking themselves seriously whatsoever while still delivering music that is better than their more ‘serious’ contemporaries.
Successfully transitioning from poppy post-hardcore choruses into deathcore breakdowns isn’t necessarily a new fad, but after listening to ‘Cult Mentality,’ I now feel that Avoid are some of the best to do it. The singles leading up to this release were dynamic and varied, leading me to believe that this might be a special release. Lo and behold, this thing rocks in every single way. Immediately, I’d like to point to “Gator Fest” which is an immense amount of fun with great riffs, big melodies and is capped off by an almost anti-climactic slowdown that breaks into a furiously heavy last-minute breakdown. On the heavier side as well is the track “Finish Line 3: Live on DVD” which opens with Rings of Saturn style alien noises, catapults forward with some more chunky riffage and closes with the band continuously slowing down the tempo of the song till it comes to a full stop. It seems like most of the songs on here find a way to exacerbate, hyperbolize a common trope, or theme that metalcore bands such as the slowdown breakdown but done to an extreme for laughs.
The opening of the song “Whatever” features a nod to a hilarious trend in metalcore music in which bands will state the name of the song using a female robot voice; Avoid does this very thing but instead of saying the name of the song, they simply have their robot voice say, “robot voice.” It is simple yet effective, it’s clever and ascertains the lack of seriousness that the band builds their music from. An example of the band being able to nonchalantly incorporate other styles of music is the track “B0Red” which features a bridge heavy stylized in the form of early 2000’s alt-metal like Deftones or Crossfade. It’s seamless and manages to elevate the song past just a catchy core tune.
It's not a reinvention of the genre by any means but it turns the formula on its head and brings a bit of fun to a stale sound. With bands like Fit for a King, We Came as Romans and Architects dropping the ball with less than stellar records, it’s nice to see a younger band blazing the trail and capturing the attention of fans with their well-written tunes. The silliness of their song titles certainly harkens back to those 2000’s scene-core bands just without the hair, cringe, and crabs. I wasn’t sure this band could sustain the level of quality of their singles for an entire record, but they have surprised me and proved me dead wrong.
Highlights:
“COWABUNGA”
“Whatever”
“Can’t Take This Away”
“Gator Fest”
