Band : 36 Crazyfists

Album title : The Tide And Its Takers

Label : Ferret Music

Distributor : Plastic Head

Release date : 27/05/2008

Release : CD

My first 36CF, and théir first for Ferret! As per usual, I went into the history of the band, and found out that there was indeed a life before Roadrunner.

In fact, life for the now Portland (Oregon) based band actually started in Anchorage (Alaska) in December 1994, and back then they were still a pure Hardcore affair, taking their name from a Jackie Chan movie. The original line-up (which recorded the 1995 5-track EP Boss Buckle) comprised singer Brock Lindow, guitarist Ryan Brownell, bassist JD Stuart, and drummer Thomas Noonan. Following the death of their bassist in a car crash in 1996, Lindow and Noonan relocated to their current whereabouts, picked up guitarist Steve Holt and bassist Mick Whitney, and started to make a name for themselves all over again. 1997 would not only see the band release a second EP (Suffer Tree), but also a full-length (In The Skin). Before too long the band was supporting such acts as Blink 182, NOFX, Primus, and System Of A Down, but life as a band would remain a struggle. In 1999 the guys recorded a demo EP, and then befriended the guys in Skinlab, who would promote the demo into the hands of their A & R representatives at Roadrunner (who would sign the band in 2000).

By the time the band's major label debut finally hit the streets in April 2002, the musicians had either been influenced by their environment or the label, delivering a Nu-Metal styled Bitterness The Star. 36 CF was sent out on the road touring the US with such heavyweight acts as Candira, Chimaira, Diecast, God Forbid, and Hotwire, then crossed the Atlantic Ocean for the European Road Rage Tour in alliance with Five Pointe O and Killswitch Engage. As a result, record sales were quite gratifying. The band's second album for Roadrunner came with March 2004's A Snow Capped Romance. Produced by James Paul Wisner (Dashboard Confessional, As Friends Rust) and mixed by the infamous Andy Sneap, the album saw a musical shifting towards the Metalcore direction (the new hot thing in those days). Notable tours to promote the naw album were the Weapons Of Mass Destruction dates in the Summer of 2004, linking the band with God Forbid and Machine Head, another US tour with Candira, Kittie, and Twelve Tribes during July, closing off the year playing shows with acts like Killswitch Engage and Poison The Well (in stead of a proposed tour with Candira, Dry Kill Logic and Nonpoint)in December. April 2005 saw the band on a UK tour suported by Twelve Tribes.Before starting on a new album in September 2005 (entering the studio a month later), the band took two months off. This time vocal guest sessions (something which had become a habit on their previous two albums) came from Killswitch Engage frontman Howard Jones and Milligram singer Jonah Jenkins (also former frontman for Only Living Witness, one of 36CF's favourite bands in their youth), another guest appearance coming from former Killswitch Engage drummer Tom Gomes. Almost two months before the release date of June 12, 2006, the album was leaked onto the Internet, and Roadrunner decided against releasing Rest Inside The Flames on US territory. Rumours about the band being dropped by the major soon arose and, the rumour being persistent, the band signed to DRT Entertainment, who gave the album a US distribution starting November. In contrast to successful UK sales (where the album debuted on #71 in the album charts), US albums sales during the first week (not even reaching 1900 copies) were really disappointing. This in spite of 36CF undertaking two different US tours that same month, the first in alliance with Lacuna Coil and Soil, the second with Catherine, Clifton, and Scars Of Tomorrow. 2007's touring schedule was opened in February with the The Funeral For Yesterday Tour, allying the band to Dead To Fall, In This Moment, Kittie, and Walls Of Jericho, and in April 36CF undertook an extensive 26-date UK tour, supported by their buddies from Twelve Tribes. During Summer 2007, a contract was signed with Ferret Music, the band entering the studio in the Fall.On January 31, 2008, the boys were back on this side of the Atlantic supporting Bullet For My Valentine on their European tour.

And now...for the new album! You know, normally this review would've been done by one of my collegues, who's done all Roadrunner albums. The fact that said reviewer is rather on the lazy side (only doing some 7 or 8 albums per month, max!), and was already given a few choice albums while stillbeing behind on his work-load, led our editor-in-chief to put the job on the shoulders of yours truly (whom, as you might know, does from 30 up to an occasional 65 reviews per month). Not that I regret the extra job, quite on the contrary, because...produced/ recorded by guitarist/ backing singer Steve Holt, mixing and mastering of the material was again confided to Andy Sneap... with a truly booming sound on the album as result. This being my first 36CF album, I had no pre-conceived ideas about how the album should sound like stylistically, and to my feeling the band has come to a further evolution in their music, not only using elements of Hardcore, Nu-Metal, and Metalcore in different blends, but also adding a certain degree of Alternative Rock/ Metal feel to the whole! Another evolution is apparently also evident in the lead vocals. With the album being sent to us somewhat late, there's already reviews available in written press, and one reviewer who claims to have followed the band from the (Roadrunner) beginning claims Lindow's voice on the first two albums to have been remeniscent of a goat's, the third album seeing an increased amount of Screamo-styled singing. I've no idea what that guy speaks of, of course, but personally I feel there's nothing wrong with the vocal department on this album at all! Thanks to a very expressive bass, the guitarist can pretty much do his own thing. Still, there's plenty of guitar overdubs, you know! In the calmer moments, you can hear an occasonal atmospheric bit of guitar in the background, possibly played through guitar synth to give it some keyboard tonality (check out the album opening "The All Night Lights"; the band's point of view against the Iraq War "Only For A Year Or So...", wonderfully brought with those wife/ husband spoken word parts; and the album closing ballad and title track). On two occasions you'll even find acoustic guitar being played (opening of "Waiting On A War" and the ballad, of course). Vocal guests this time around were Adam Jackson from Twelve Tribes on "Clear The Coast", and Candace Kucsulain of Wall Of Jericho on "Vast And Vague".

In the end, I realise that my above description of the band's music could go só many different ways in someone's imagination, so maybe you'd better turn to myspace.com/36crazyfists, where the band posted no less than 5 songs off the 11-track album (plus a video for the track "We Gave It Hell"). One song off the previous album can be found at myspace.com/dyrefly1, posted by the MySpace websiteowner. At this very moment, the band is again on tour through Europe (in the UK til June 7, then on another location each day – check their MySpace for detailed info). For Belgian fans, it's important to know that the boys end that tour at our own Graspop Metal Meeting on June 28 (however, since the festival is sold out, you'll have to be really lucky to still get a ticket). Starting July 6 th, the boys jump on the Rockstar Mayhem Tour in alliance with Disturbed, Dragonforce and Slipknot to name but a few...which will see the festival billing stop at various amphitheaters and pavillions throughout the US.

90/100

Tony.