At first, when I heard of this band, I found out that Maynard James Keenan was the singer from Tool and was fronting this Alt. Rock band known as A Perfect Circle. Knowing that Maynard has done some good projects, I thought I would pick this up. It could be my album that I accidentally picked up and liked, so to speak. You could say that this band has a sound of their own, having more of a metal root mixed with a rock beat, and so on and so forth. Billy Howerdel, who works with Maynard from the band Tool as thier producer, is the guitarist for APC and does a splendid job coming up with gutiar lines that aren't too complicated, but yet can satisfy the listener.
The sound of APC on this album
Mer De Noms differs from that on
Thirteenth Step. You could call this more of a metal album, and the other as more of a rock album. APC also does a good job implementing the violin into a few of their songs, with one of them entitled
Rose. It is short, but is a fantastic way to end a song, as it starts out very different.
Renholder is also a song that uses the violin along with a few other instruments not normally used in a rock band, or they don’t make it sound like they would be commonly used.
Next up is the song that gives Maynard’s angst with his Mother’s Death, Judith Marie Keenan. The song,
Judith, is very much different than some tracks Maynard has written, because it is a personal message from him, to his Mom, and is also about blind faith. It is saying that we do all these things to follow a Higher Power/God, but then He takes away something or someone of importance from us and we are all mad. It is something along those lines.
There are two songs on here that really define the album as a whole. They are
Orestes and
3 Libras. The one that really is a standout, but a hidden gem, if you will, is Orestes, as it is my favorite song on the CD, and the catchy guitar line in the middle of the song. It is about keeping someone close, because you can’t survive without them, but it is killing you to keep them, and the dilemma within. A great message to a great song. 3 Libras is about a love triangle, and what goes on. The acoustic guitar is some of the best, that flows with the music, along with the violins. It is kind of short, but magnificent nonetheless. Another good song is
Brena, which also could be a good sound defining song. It is a minor song, and APC does a good job of switching moods.
The lyrics are typical Maynard James Keenan, stuff about his Mom, revenge, relationships, and how he deals with them. A lot of history is involved (also what Orestes is about). All in all, Maynard’s lyrics are good, but start to get repetitive after a while.
The overall sound in this CD is just brilliant, from the guitars to the drums. Maynard does a good job with his voice. Billy Howerdel does a great job playing the guitar, and using some nice technical skills to contribute to the music.
The only thing I didn’t like about this, was how the sound wasn’t as good of a quality compared to Thirteenth Step, but it is just brilliant, still, showing how good Thirteenth Step is. It got kind of repetitive after a while as well.
My final impression is that I am going to give this a 4, for being great, but not at the level of Tool (Maynard’s other band) or even Thirteenth Step for that matter. A great CD.
