Review Summary: In my opinion: this rivals Kezia.
Choke, the 4-piece
Punk/Progressive/Other band from Edmonton, Alberta, have less praise than they deserve. To be honest, when I first bought this album I was pleasantly surprised because: I don’t listen to punk or hardcore. I still don’t, but this album is not trying to get you into a specific genre or style, and it is quite hard to get into by itself.
With almost inaccessible vocals the album needs some listens through to fully appreciate it. Strained, nasally vocals, which are actually off key at points, make it raw and unique. The main vocalist does have dynamics and isn’t some atonal, useless vocalist who heads a punk group, he has a great sense of fitting the music and never out shining another part of the whole; the album would be worse off without them.
The album has a running start and never stops.
Breathing Won’t Come Easy begins with a subtle display of their technical prowess. It then bursts into the prominent shouting/singing melody with crashing drums and dragging guitars. The songs dies down quite a bit when it hits the verses and goes up and down through out.
Trace Rewind is one of the strongest songs on the album, the first minute is atmospheric guitar soloing over a constant dampened riff. The melodies are spectacular throughout the verses and are the main attraction in the song. With abrupt jumps in dynamics it keeps you on your toes even through the slow, quiet sections.
Choke does and excellent job at keeping song structure from falling apart (excluding
Interlude) and keeps songs separate rather than mixing them together into some homogenous, pretentious mess of a concept album. They excel at songs that aren’t too long, but not to short. Even though the production quality isn’t bad, but isn’t great, the instruments are kept separate and never really clash.
One weak link in the album is in the very middle, breaking the flow.
Interlude would be a memorable intro, or a great song if it was about 30 seconds long. The problem is that they made it 2 and a half minutes long with no vocals or movement. This is almost entirely repaired by
This Forced Hour which has the most obvious change from loud to quiet through the entire album and a slow rise rather than an abrupt jump.
After listening to any track on the album, I will not have to tell you that these guys can play. This being their 6th studio effort, they don’t take time out of the album to show you. In the strongest section of the album is one of the worst songs on the album:
Tone Deaf Conversations which is pretty much just that. Filled with atonal singing and lack luster guitars it is a let down on the album, just skip that song and go from
It’s Not That I Don’t Want To Talk, It’s Just That It Is Freezing In This Phone Booth to
Momentary Relapse and continue to the end.
In conclusion the album has some rough patches but over all is very smooth and has more high points than lows. I have had this album for about three years and it has never gotten old or tiresome to listen to.
Pros:
Dynamic instrumentals
Catchy melodies
Vocals are fitting*
Guitars don’t out shine rest of the band
Drumming is great
Song structure doesn’t fall apart
Cons:
Vocals are strained/nasally*
Interlude is too long
Tone Deaf Conversations could be left out entirely
*Some will like or dislike the vocals, hence the pro/con on vocals.
