Review Summary: Because really, if you have no opinions what are you if not some kind of sub-human waste of life.
While I sit here, as i have been for a good while, listening to this EP and trying to come up with an opinion* I realized something. An album is an answer, and even now my more astute readers are thinking, "Ahhhh yes but what is the question?" The question is everything the band has done in between releasing albums of course. Touring, recording, interviewing, writing, living, all these facets of being in a band lead you to the end goal of the release of your musical output, and these all bring up various thoughts in the listeners mind. The goal being in the end that the album will serve as a satisfactory answer to those questions and satiate people until the next round begins. And Erra certainly have a lot to answer this time around** and not a lot of record time to do so. Since their last release, 2013's Augment, the band has underwent large line-up changes in the form of a new vocalist and new guitar player and also signed to arguably one of the biggest metal labels today, Sumerian Records. They have also managed to put together this group of songs while touring almost non-stop for the last year. So here are the obvious questions posed that Moments of Clarity must endeavor to answer. Has the quality of the songwriting declined with the changing of members? Does new vocalist Ian Eubanks successfully carry the torch of Garrison Lee? Has moving to the new label changed the sound of the band at all?
Then, just as suddenly as my first epiphany had set upon my brain, so too did a new earth shattering idea. All this question/answer stuff is all fluff, none of it matters to the actual music that is presented here. You see there are two schools of thought when trying to absorb art*** ^ and they are as follows. The first is that any art should be disconnected from everything surrounding it and be judged solely on it's own merits without any knowledge of who made it or what was happening when it was made. The subject should speak for itself and present it's message without any further knowledge. The second idea is that this first idea is a load of hoity-toity bull***, of course you have to know what the creators of the art where thinking and doing when they made it, how else would you be able to fully understand it without first understanding the people and situations behind it? The argument has raged on for millenia^^ and me, being the humble man that I am, do not know which is right, or if there even is a right answer. Yet I feel that this album works on different levels if you look at it through these two lenses, so i will attempt to show you my opinion on the album through the prism of these different measurements.
Moments of Clarity^^^ is an interesting beast in that it really presents nothing new for the band musically, yet is still just as enjoyable as their last foray and I think this speaks very highly to the formula the band has found to their sound. The songwriting is definitely interesting but not mind blowing, the guitars are technical without being overly so, the vocals are executed at a high level while not reinventing them, the chuggs are chugging without being so chuggy chuggy~. I would say that nothing is sheer perfection on this EP, but everything is firing at a high enough rate that the net total is something that is fun to listen to. While i have heard people say that the new screaming vocalist sounds near identical to the previous one, longtime fans will pretty quickly notice Garrison's absence. Ian's screaming style is very much safe, powerful and done well but without the range or sense of timing that made the former's vocals so enjoyable. So too is guitarist Alan Rigdon's absence felt, as the guitar playing seems to have shifted from the overly obsessed with melody sound of the last albums~~ to a more straightforward style without trying to cram so much into each measure of music. Warrior is a very chug happy, heavy song but it is refreshing to hear them stick to the one style throughout the entire run time. Our Translucent Forever really focuses on melody and creating beautiful sounding moments and succeeds far more than it doesn't. It seems they have learned that every song doesn't have to be everything and it really leads to a pleasurable result. So to answer a question, the new members have certainly resulted in a change for the band's sound but not a decrease in the quality of the music. Jesse Cash said himself after the vocalist switch that the whole point of this EP was to show that the band could carry on and be as good as they have been with all the changes, and i think this release really cements that.
But now here i go, forgetting everything about this band and their past, their members, their writing style. If you want to judge Moments of Clarity for what it is and nothing more, it is an enjoyable but a boring affair. The 5 songs are similar enough that if you aren't paying close attention it will sound like one 25 minute song, and while there are interesting things going on in them all, these gems are tied together with very standard, uninspired sounding stretches. The solo in Our Translucent Forever is really good, but to get to it you have to wade through minutes that sound copied and pasted from the rest of the album. The djenty style chugging really reaches a critical mass in this album, and while its fun at the beginning by the end you will sigh every time you hear them lean on a chug like a crutch~~~. Every chorus sounds very similar, down to seeming like they are all in the same key and the same notes. The little keyboard parts in Dreamcatcher and Moments of Clarity sound almost like an afterthought, as if after the album was written they remembered that they wanted a couple synthy bits and wrote them in 5 minutes in FL studio+. It's these pretty large issues that really prevent this EP from ever being any better than "good" And it is both good and enjoyable, it's just not going to make you ponder existence or your personal beliefs on, well, anything really. It's popcorn music, fun to consume but without much substance.
So what is to be learned from this exercise? Well, for starters, that this is much too much thought to be putting into a review of a semi-well known metalcore band that hardly anyone will read and will change no one's opinion. More than that though, it appears that when you know about the work that went into the release, the people and the events that shaped it, you are willing to be more forgiving. More willing to open yourself to enjoying it because it was made by people just like you++. You are more apt to like it, especially if you already enjoy the band. The synapses in your brain are all firing off and telling you, "I like this group, therefore i will like this new release." Therefore you will forgive some of the shortcomings. Strip that human element away and you are left with a cold slab of music. No trimmings, no attachments, just sitting there all naked and exposed+++. In the same way your opinion will be informed by nothing more than pure facts, coldly and clinically picking apart every little thing untill there isn't much left that's perfect. To me, based just on my personal interest in the band and my level of enjoyment of all their work, this is easily a 4 for me. Then at the same time the other side of my brain tells me that if i indeed heard this without knowing a single thing about who wrote it, giving it a 3 would be generous(:-:). Is one better than the other? Is it better to embrace the artist for who they are and just enjoy the music? Is it better to not be swayed by such things and stick to the evidence? I don't have an answer for you.
Annotations:
*Because really, if you have no opinions what are you if not some kind of sub-human waste of life.
**I started a sentence with and, so sue me.
***Yes this is art, all music is art even if some of it is bad art.
^I know there are probably about a million schools of thought on this subject, i'm going with the major two that serve this review's purpose, you asshole.
^^Probably
^^^Original sounding title, I know.
~Just try and make sense of that, I dare you.
~~Impulse especially.
~~~How many times do you think I've said chug so far? I know how many, obviously, but i won't be telling you, this is the interactive section of the review
+Shoutout to all my other FL StudiHoes.
++Well, lets be honest, better than you.
+++Like my ex wife, AMIRIGHT?
(:-:)Which is why i split the difference for the official ratting.
