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The Flatliners - Cavalcade

Rating

RIYL

Lawrence Arms
The Fad
Hot Water Music

Release Date

04/13/2010

Label

Fat Wreck Chords

Tracklist

1. "The Calming Collection"
2. "Carry The Banner"
3. "Bleed"
4. "Here Comes Treble"
5. "He Was a Jazzman"
6. "Shithawks"
7. "Monumental"
8. "Filthy Habits"
9. "Liver Alone"
10. "Sleep Your Life Away"
11. "Count Your Bruises"
12. "New Years Resolutions"

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Recent Ratings
Firebrandead	Firebrandead
tim

While we can always hope for an album to come out swinging and show us new horizons heretofore unseen in music, there is no substitute for an album that has no problem kicking your ass with something you may think you’ve heard before to the point of nausea. The Flatliners’ third full-length Cavalcade might appear to be just another beards-and-beer-in-a-sweaty-basement kind of record, but closer listens reveal one of the most well-executed and energetic punk rock albums in recent history.

Opener “The Calming Collection” is a perfect amalgam of what this record is all about: huge frantic guitars, breakneck drumming that still gives you just enough room to breathe, a bass guitar dancing and running in the background, turn-on-dime dynamics, throat-shredding voices singing subtly melodic lines, and gang vocals that beg to be screamed along at the top of everyone’s collective lungs. The recording quality makes everything sound suitably huge, and the production polish is just enough so that everything can be heard perfectly.

Creative and sometimes surprising instrumentation, like the rolling drums on “Shithawks” or the slow build-up in “He Was a Jazzman”, show the band to be talented songwriters, and the fact that they rarely repeat the same part twice in the exact same way keep the songs on Cavalcade interesting where it could have just devolved into the same old orgcore pattern.

Even though The Flatiners completely destroy when they are plowing ahead with straight up punk like “Bleed” and “Sleep Your Life Away”, they aren’t afraid to step a little outside of that box. “Carry the Banner” has an absolutely huge chorus that could be part of a nice crossover hit. “Here Comes Treble” not only has a clever title, but it allows singer Chris Cresswell to flex his vulnerable muscles when he lamentably sings, “This one's for my brother, I never meant to become a stranger.” The band pays homage to their almost completely gone skacore roots in the expertly played chunky reggae of “He Was a Jazzman”. Lastly, “Monumental” is a standout track where the four Canadians turn the distortion off and smooth the edges out a bit, creating a breezy, tight song that provides a nice change of pace in the middle of a hard-hitting album.

Cavalcade isn’t the sort of album that redefines genres or pushes sonic boundaries into new realms, but we are lucky – an album like that is rarely as well done as The Flatliners’ newest achievement. To put it simply, for fans of great, blistering, in-your-face punk rock, Cavalcade is essential.

--Stephen Harris