I Am The Avalanche is:
* Vinnie Caruana – vocals, guitar
* Michael Ireland – guitar, piano
* Kellen Robson – bass
* Brett Romnes – drums, percussion
* Brandon Swanson – guitar
* Barrett Jones – piano (created on cd, so thought I'd include him, but he's not actually in the band)
I don't know how to start this review? Shall I go with a past experience, or maybe a witty intro that makes me look like a pompous jackass that thinks he's hot fu
cking sh
it. Or maybe I'll just write those two sentences and call that my crappy ass intro. When I first heard of these guys, it was when I got my hands on the split they did with The Early November. Their song "New Disaster" intrigued me, but it was only a demo, I'll express how I feel about it now later.
The first track "Dead and Gone" is a pretty fancy track with a catchy as hell bass hook (it'll get caught in your head, trust me) with a really good chorus and chant towards the end. The one gripe I have with this song is where the singing switches to sounded like the guy was thrown in a metal trash can, it throws the vibe off in the worst way possible. Then it goes onto the track "New Disaster."
Easiest way to put it, I do not like how this track turned out. I find that the song it self sounds a little bit too overproduced for its own good, the demo sounded a little bit rawer, which drew me to the song, in the end, this song is good, but definitely not as good as it could've been. The ending of it is still pretty good though.
The next song "Murderous" starts off with a reggae like riff, but shifts between a pop-punk vibe to reggae vibe. But it really starts to pick up when it gets to the chorus. I just noticed that this is sort of starting to go off into a track by track review, so yes, onto the instruments and such.
First off, I don't know why, but I think this guy's voice is a lot better than most people will probably give him credit before. I've had people call his voice generic, but to be quite honest, I don't think it is at all, it sounds quite a bit better than most voices of their genre (I'm having a tough time between calling them indie or pop-punk, tell me what to decide them as). The instruments themselves are nothing at all special, you won't find any technical playing or awesome riffage or any shredding of the sorts here. Just some dudes playing their instruments in an average way. Although when the bass comes out to play, he does not disappoint.
Back to track by track. When I first heard "Green Eyes," I was not a fan of it at all. Listening to it later, I can still see why. The intro to this song is just abysmal, and it really seems to throw the rest of the song off into something that's just a wee bit above average. The chorus is a little catchy but that's pretty much it.
The next track throws things into a different swing. "I Took A Beating" is definitely my favorite track on the whole album. It starts off quick and stays that way, and it's extremely ***ing catchy. It keeps up the fast pace the whole song and the organ in it is just thrown in their perfectly. The organ does wonders for this song. Oh, did I mention that it's catchy?
A high point of the next song, "Wasted" is the pretty nice riff in the verses, but the choruses are just plain blah, like they didn't even try at all when writing the chorus. Just an average song, you could probably skip it, I usually do.
The next track, my second favorite, "Always" is a fantastic pick up from the average track before. I'm not too keen on the chorus, but I really do hear emotion (bear with me here) coming out of his voice during the chorus is really what makes the song.
"I never admit to nothing
I'm too proud to buy my own coffin
I'll figure it out some other day
Cause right now I'm buying something else
And it means so much more to me"
"This is Dungeon Music" is quite a cool song that flows pretty nicely, even if the chorus is a little lacking. They like to slow down their songs during the verses a lot and then build up from their. The lyrics are a little stupid (talking about taking out the garbage? Did I miss a metaphor here?)
The rest of the songs after this really start to become like something you've heard earlier on the album. This is pretty much one of the biggest gripes I have with the album, is that it starts to fall off the track towards the end.
Really, other than that major gripe right there with the end of the album, I think this is a damn fine album that pretty much anyone could enjoy. I know most people probably haven't heard of this, but I encourage people to check it out as much as possible. I believe this is a solid to high 3.5
Recommended Tracks
I Took A Beating
Always
Dead and Gone
3.5-3.75/5
