Drowned in Sound

Search



alexisonfire

Alexisonfire: Alexisonfire

no votes
?
by Mat Hocking
“Why did the metal-head cross the road? Because he’s a gullible moron who’ll buy anything with skulls on it.” The Melvins T-Shirt slogan.

I wanted to hate this CD before I’d even opened the case. A Canadian band who no-one cared about before hearts and skulls and XxonlinejournalcorexX became popular; a band whose name itself is a kind of bastardisation of Boy Sets Fire and Nineironspitfire (yes, I’m well aware of the lactating contortionist connection as well!), who play scrEmo with songs like “Little Girls Pointing And Laughing”, “A Dagger Through The Heart...” and “44.Caliber Love Letter” and who are utterly adored by an impressionable mesh-cap sporting girl I know.

Well, as a wise man once said, never judge a book by its derivative emo-core cover, so lets hazard a listen. Hmm... stuttering, technical guitars, raspy screams and predictable dynamic shifts that show their mellow side amidst the cluttered ferocity of hardcore angst. 'Painful'-sounding melodic belchs and really, really terrible screams equate horribly with yawnsome riffing and the kind of cringeworthy predictability that makes your skin crawl. Actually, scrap what that wise man said - this is exactly what you think they'd sound like: a stupid American xxx-core band picking all the good bits from truly pioneering hardcore bands before them and stitching together a soulless abomination with no character, no individuality and certainly no style.

If you’re moving on from your Taking Back Sunday/Blink 182 phase and wanna get into the heavier music the older cool kids are into – you know, the ones with piercings and tattoos and stuff - this is probably aimed at you. For us older, cynical bastards, they're not gonna take us this easily.

  • Alexisonfire 3 / 10

Alexisonfire - Alexisonfire

Chunk of shit.
I wish bands like this would get lost.

Alexisonfire - Alexisonfire

why doesn't someone put poor Alex out, then.

And before anyone points out that they're called Alexis On Fire, they should have thought about that before they took the spaces out, shouldn't they.

Heap of shite.

Alexisonfire - Alexisonfire

i dont actually mind these! they get tiresome on record, but live they are pretty good.

plus the guitar work is very impressive

Alexisonfire - Alexisonfire

That was slightly more direct than your Rock Sound review of this, Mr Diver. You were far too fair on this lot that issue.

No more cliched xWhInGe-CoRex, please.

Re: Alexisonfire - Alexisonfire

I was, wasn't I.
Sorry about that.
Must've just had lunch or something.
Still, 5/10 is hardly a good score.
If I reviewed it today it'd score lower.

Alexisonfire - Alexisonfire

To be fair, the other version of this CD doesn't have a skull on the cover.

Something I found funny - for Alexisonfire's second album, they move towards a Taking Back Sunday sort of sound.

I don't hate this band though.

Alexisonfire - Alexisonfire

they are impressive musicians and i love their music, but its true about the saturation of this type of music. ah well.

Alexisonfire - Alexisonfire

I liked the schoolgirl knife fight artwork it originally had. This is still a crap album though.