Artist Of The Week - Anchor & Braille

It's been about three years since we've gotten an album from Anchor & Braille, the indie side project of Anberlin's Stephen Christian, but this week, on July 31st, the band's sophomore album will be released. The Quiet Life is a collection of haunting melodies and catchy percussion, certainly a maturation of sound since 2009's Felt. The Quiet Life is available now in stores and online through Tooth & Nail Records.

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The Great Campaign of Sabotage

Artist: Overcome
Album: The Great Campaign of Sabotage
Release Date: 2/1/11
Label: Facedown Records

Last year when Overcome announced their reformation, I was very excited. I am a huge fan of their past work and own all of their previous albums. One of the main reasons for my excitement was the fact that I have always been curious to hear Overcome with today's cutting edge, digital production. It was no secret that their albums, although highly influential, suffered from less than perfect production, even for their time.

After the first few listens of The Great Campaign of Sabotage, I was torn. Although I enjoyed the songs, I was frustrated with what I perceived as very raw production and monotonous sounding songs. Somewhere along the line, my opinion changed. What I once saw as poor production, now became a breath of fresh air compared to all of the overproduced hardcore and metal that litters the scene. What was thought to be monotonous sounding, began to reveal itself to be rather complex and chaotic. I realized I had become a victim. A victim of the all too frequent culprit known as hype. I over-hyped this album so much that anything less than perfect was a letdown.

As for The Great Campaign of Sabotage, this album is a perfect blend of chaotic metalcore, with elements of Overcome's old Spirit-filled hardcore sound. Some of the highlights for me are "Reverence Part 2" with its great lead guitar work, "Profession," with its spastic tempo changes, "Alone In A Crowd," with its exceptional drum work, and "Clemency," with its dueling vocals. New vocalist Thomas Washington does a good job of adding in low death grunts to spice up his raspy screams. Although I would've loved to hear longtime vocalist Jason Stinson's throaty screams more, Thomas does a more than capable job.

Overall: If you are looking for something different in your hardcore and metal, this album is definitely for you. Overcome has put out a solid release, especially considering their ten year hiatus. With The Great Campaign of Sabotage, Overcome has managed to avoid tarnishing their legacy, all the while becoming relevant to today's hardcore and metal scene.

Rating: 8/10

Reviewed by Matthew Alexander

Tracklisting:
  1. Intro
  2. Reverence Part 2
  3. Body of Death
  4. Profession
  5. Alone In A Crowd
  6. The Breath of He Who Kills
  7. Seeker Sensitive
  8. Amnesty
  9. Clemency
  10. Lifting the Weak
  11. Campaign of Sabotage
  12. Outro
(Buy Here)

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4 comments:

  1. Thanks for good nod. To clarify, Thomas Washington is officially our vocalist and did 85 percent of all the vocals. Our friend Jarrod Norris came into the studio and provided the lower-sounding growl-ish vocals.

    We've already been hearing weird stuff about the production quality. We think our producer, Ryan Butler, did a fantastic job. We went a more straightforward route and strayed from the 808 sub kicks and snare drum replacement which has somehow become the "standard" in "high-quality" recordings.

    -Nick Greenwood, guitarist in Overcome

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  2. I Love this album. People who are dismissing it for alleged "poor production quality" are making a huge mistake.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I agree that people overreacted to the production quality. Myself, I love the raw sound and tried to allude to that in the review. I must have read some wrong info. The interview I read made it sound like Thomas Washington left before the vocals were recorded and that Jarrod Norris took over during recording. Thanks for the clarification Nick. I am kicking myself for not checking further. Thanks for reading.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Glad you decided to check it out Bloggingblacklines.

    ReplyDelete