Alexisonfire - Old Crows / Young Cardinals
Rating
RIYL
MoneenCancer Bats
This Is Hell
Gallows
Release Date
06/23/2009
Label
Dine AloneTracklist
1. Old Crows2. Young Cardinals
3. Sons Of Privilege
4. Born And Raised
5. No Rest
6. The Northern
7. Midnight Regulations
8. Emerald Street
9. Heading For The Sun
10. Accept Crime
11. Burial
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The release of the fourth studio album from St. Catharines, Ontario natives nullifies jokes turned rumours of the band's imminent break up. Old Crows / Young Cardinals comes off of the heels of Alexisonfire’s mainstream breakthrough behemoth, Crisis, essentially picking up where its predecessor left off.
With the enormous success that is Crisis, there is no doubting the unrelenting pressure surrounding Old Crows / Young Cardinals to surpass all previous achievements, or at the very least to perform on the same level of years past. Instead of regressing to the sound that launched them into coveted mainstream territory, the band took to reconstruction by combining their technical post-hardcore roots with a more simplistic, raw punk sound – a sound familiar to “We Are The Sound” off of Crisis.
Although the path of Old Crows / Young Cardinals tends to lean towards a punk oriented direction, the traditional technical guitars and drumming are still in abundance throughout the album, just on a slightly more subtle scale. The most evident example of this is on the track “The Northern”, as it incites a more tranquil outlook reminiscent to that of “Rough Hands” and “Side Walk When She Walks”. Dallas Green’s charming honey-like vocals float tenderly so as to not pierce the surface. This in turn is contrasted heavily with the shrill cries of George Pettit that penetrate the air like a double-edged blade.
The colossal amount of distortion Alexisonfire were once known for has been toned down to accommodate a cleaner pair of guitars. By mixing these dark, “clean” guitars with heavy bass lines and furious drumming, Alexisonfire are able to conjure up nine of eleven forceful punk/post-hardcore anthems. “No Rest”, “Accept Crime”, “Heading For The Sun”, and “Emerald Street” burst through the speakers inviting even the biggest doubters of the band's new sound to get on their feet to keep up with the up-tempo, dance inducing snare hits and hand claps (most notable on “Accept Crime”).
However, one of the biggest changes put forth by Alexisonfire is not instrumental. Instead, it lies with Pettit’s vocals. The spastic shrieks that were once so prominently displayed on previous efforts have now been replaced with bold and brooding screams that draw similarities to Toronto’s Chris Colohan of Cursed fame. Rather than three distinct voices combating for their position, there are now two voices that sound relatively similar, which makes it particularly difficult to differentiate as to whether or not it is in fact George Pettit or guitarist Wade MacNeil singing. On the plus side, however, both Pettit and MacNeil’s deeper vocal ranges tend to compliment one another without muddying the tracks too much.
After eight years and four studio albums, there are only two discernible directions a band can head in: the down slope of a rather short career after having peaked due to a lack of evolving with the times, or a continuing and successful climb until they’ve settled comfortably upon the mountaintop. With Old Crows / Young Cardinals, it's very well evident that Alexisonfire continue to prefer the latter option. And much like the porn star they were named after, they too are ready for their money shot.
--Daniel Alcinii
Comments
Claremont, CA
i love alexisonfire, but the screaming on this album is painful. pettit's voice is so horrible, it's hard to listen to the first few tracks all the way through. i love the addition of the organ on "the northern" and "burial"...guessing green wrote these songs. with the exception of these songs, green's vocals are used primarily as the chorus, and although beautiful and "honey"-like, they are just repetitive. they need to boot the screamer.
Lehigh Valley, PA
I wouldn't really consider those "screams". George has done interviews in the past year stating that they "wanted to kill their screamo sound". I don't think they completely killed it but it's definitely a step towards getting rid of it. Daniel nailed it when he wrote "both Pettit and MacNeil’s deeper vocal ranges tend to compliment one another without muddying the tracks too much." I think this album is solid and while people may not dig it at first, they should keep listening it to it. It's definitley worth the chance. Good review Daniel.
Claremont, CA
yea...whatever that sound is coming from his mouth. gotta stop. sounds like a shitty quality rancid bootleg or something.
PA
Band would be great if George left. There is no need for any of those types of vocals to be over this type of music. And yes, I still consider it screaming.
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Minnesota
I'm with Chris. I can't stand the screaming/yelling vocals at all. If it was just Dallas, this would be a beast of an album. As it is I can see my personal score of the album dropping from 3 to a 2.5 or 2 as time goes on. I want to like the album, but it just isn't catching on with me.
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Lehigh Valley, PA
Ok...understood, but why so drastic??? Why does he have to leave? Can't he just go back to the screaming he used to do?
PA
No because he was never great to begin with, and their music should be progressing and not regressing. You did the post hardcore screamy shit already, now I want to hear some good ass rock songs, and instead I get what could be good ass rock songs except that their plagued by shitty barking.
And yes, Good Ass Rock is a genre.
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Minnesota
In all honesty, I've never really liked AOF's harsh vocals. I've more so just learned to live with them. Watch Out was great since they seemed to take a back seat to Dallas and felt less out of place than on other albums. Crisis would have been much better without the harsh vocals.
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Lehigh Valley, PA
Hmmm. Eh, I dig the album and every single one before it.
Pandolfo hates everything.
Poop.
PA
LOL
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Lehigh Valley, PA
...I'm currently listening to The Presidents of the United States of America (their first album) so what do I know ha.
Coopersburg, PA
Completely agree with you, for once haha. This band would be way better without the screaming. I'm guessing they don't have the balls to kick out the screamer so they're just dealing with it and doing the best they can with the lineup.
Lehigh Valley, PA
Nick, you're on the list with Pandolfo and gettin' a balltap on Friday at ETID.
Hey, everyone is entitled to their own opinion but for some reason I really dig this album.
Toronto, Ontario
I wish Dallas actually sang less on the majority of songs (previous releases included). I love City & Colour for the most part, but I'd prefer it if he'd leave his singing with that project and let George and Wade be more gritty like they were before. I think I'm the only person who thinks Dallas kind of takes away from AOF, but I also think I'm the only one who wants them to be "harder" maybe.
Anyway, at first I hated this album because I hated the direction George went with his vocals, but then it grew on me a lot. I was initially going to give this album a 2 had I not been forced to listen over and over and over and over and over, hah.
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Los Angeles
I only checked this album out because of the vocals being compared to Colohan's. Very happy with this release because of it.
Fishers, Indiana
Dallas...sing...less?
BLASPHEMY! ...Perhaps not that drastic.
I'm with the majority here, I suppose. The scream/"harsh"/whatever is not singing vocals really bog down this album for me, moreso than ever before. However, the songs are pretty neat. Diverse. I'm a fan.
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Boston, MA
I agree with everyone who is saying they need to go in a Dallas only direction. All of the songs I like on this album are because of his soaring vocals in the chorus.
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Waterloo, Ontario
win
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Toronto, Ontario
Like I said, I don't mind Dallas' vocals at all, but I think I'd enjoy AOF more if he didn't sing and kept the singing for C&C
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West Haven, CT
Music is alright, Dallas Greens vocals are as good as ever, George Pettit sounds terrible.
Someone kick him out or tell him to take his screams back to what they were. This whole "lets use bullshit weak screaming to water down our sound" is stupid. Just stop screaming if you're going to shit on it.
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Kansas
I just couldn't get into this like I did crisis.
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Atascadero, CA
"Born and Raised" is such a good song.
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Colorado
This album is my least favorite album of theirs' to date.
Drummondville, Quebec
It can't be worse than Crisis!!?