Review Summary: The best kind of reintroduction.
So I don’t know what happened, but I was alone in my living room tonight prepping to roll my cigarettes for the week and after days of hearing my best friend complain about Otherness I thought, “What the hell,” and put it on. Yep. There is a God.
I don’t know what it was, but being in an empty room with the smell of pipe tobacco wafting around while listening to what would be the equivalent of an excellent bourbon is a moment I will remember for a while.
It’s not Watch Out! or Crisis, but it never tries to be. And honestly it doesn’t have to be. It is a special work of art in its own right and here is a band that is older and sounding more comfortable in their own skin, unafraid to take risks putting out music that suits their tastes. As if they knew that their fan base had grown older too, and was possibly willing to hear something different. It’s never done in an obnoxious way, where the listener feels that they are being subjected to something they don’t want to hear. No, Alexisonfire have crafted a legitimately spectacular set of songs.
The sway between aggressive blues-rock and softer reprieves is damn near perfect. Dallas Green’s performance does an excellent job of reminding me why he is my favorite singer in this genre. The instrumentals are all top-notch and Jordan Hastings in particular is just nasty behind a drum set.
My experience suffered a tad from the production, which while the raw sound is perfect for this record, there were points where I couldn’t totally tell what was going on. Fortunately, those moments were few and very far between. And at the end all I could think to myself was, “Hello, old friend. It’s nice to see you again.”
