Review Summary: The most criminally overlooked album of 2010 comes from Time To Burn... I mean, As We Draw.
This is probably the sludgiest post-hardcore I’ve ever heard. When the first track, “Shame” comes blasting through your speakers you’ll probably agree. With bass tones reminiscent of Will Haven, and guitars that sparkle, twang, and crunch, As We Draw has released an excellent record that is nearly flawless in execution, and one of the most criminally overlooked releases of 2010. Simply put, As We Draw is a band to watch, and since this is free anyways, why not?
More on As We Draw’s bassist; While his tuning mimics that of sludge/hardcore group Will Haven, his pummeling assault is entirely different. With strings dropped so far they’re nearly falling off, he chugs and chugs, but somehow never gets boring. He drives the band forward, and pushes every climax to new heights; He almost acts as a drummer would if given a bass. Simple but pushing and prodding lines permeate every song and the bass performance is perfect.
The band’s drummer isn’t overshadowed by the bassist, however. While the bass almost controls the group, the drummer keeps everything in check with almost excessive amounts of fills. His technique is punctuated by very sparse hits on the cymbals, as he pounds and rolls on the actual drums almost exclusively. The rhythm section is the reason a mid-paced post-hardcore band can pull off a six-minute song without getting stale, like nearly all of their contemporaries.
The guitars are just as well done as the rhythm. While soaring riffs like the one around the four-minute mark of “Burst of Color” and twinkling arpeggios elsewhere bring a sense of beauty to counter the assault provided by the rhythm, they can also devastate with dissonant chords pounded into the listener with the force of a freight train. “When Crowds Are Trapped… The Lonely One Dies” shows the guitars following the bass’s lead and assaulting the listener with a forceful meaty intro, and then a sparkling buildup to a frenzied whirl of unbridled fury. This song acts as a buffer between the album’s two six-minute epics, and the guitars are what make the bridge into a magnificent work all its own.
The vocals are far closer to something you might hear from a crust band than a post-hardcore band. With throat-ruining screams and occasional gang vocals, As We Draw brings just as much to the plate vocally as they do in every other department. The lyrics are all in French, so unless you are fluent in the language, you won’t get much out of them. However, the vocalist screams with enough force and emotion to portray a beautifully bleak soundscape at all times. The aforementioned gang vocals accentuate this, and often mimic the main vocalist’s throaty scream.
There is only one flaw with this album, and that is the fact that after the second six-minute song, the rest seems weak by comparison. Considering that the three songs after still sound fantastic on their own, this is a very small flaw. As We Draw will draw you in as they beat you to a pulp. Get this album.
