| CD REVIEW Throw The Fight |
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Band : Throw The Fight Yet another of those American releases issued on a locally important but otherwize small label which, after having done reasonably well on the US market, only reaches us in Europe much and much làter (usually with hopes of getting the band over here for the festival season). I’ve to concrete idea of when this Minneapolis based American Post-EmoCore band was formed. As a quartet comprised of guitarists/ backing singers Ryan Baustert and Joey Ulrich (one of which I suspect was at that time responsible for lead vocals), bassist Aaron Huppert and drummer Cory Huppert, the band’s excited fans voted the ‘em into the Alternative Press “Top 10UnsignedBands” list. This of course got the band under attention of the local music journalists, which gave the band the confidence they needed to record and release their debut EP The Fire Within thatsameyear…which in its turn attracted the attention of the local music business, more specifically that of Minneapolis producer Matt Kirkwold at Cordless Records. From then on, things went in a spiral way upwards, but…the quartet felt they still missed something! What with the both guitarists wanting to concentrate more on their rather technical and duelling play, they needed a good frontman to take over lead vocals duties…so they started auditioning singers. Somehow (no details were revealed) Kirkwold got word of British exchange student James Clark (most probably one of the other band members also going to university – because all members seem to be of that tender age still – found a “band wanted” post-it at one of the ad-valvas places and passed it on to the producer), and invited him to bring along some lyrics to an audition. As it happens, one of those lyrics…and that audition…produced one of TTF’s more important songs, “The Wreckage”, and in Clark the band had found the pérfect high-pitched lead singer! Listening to the 5 songs posted at myspace.com/throwthefight, you’ll certainly get convinced that the band members’ technical skill are of a rather high grade for their age. Although most of the music is quite dense, the melodic overtones will eventually bring the band many a new fan after a first listening session of their material indeed (always providing you’re into their kind of music, of course)! Clark’s delicious voice, perfectly backed (in a varied way, at one time harmonic, at the other with Screamo-style singing) by the two guitarists, only ads to the attraction factor (if you happen to be able to discern some occasional keyboard sounds, those are courtesy of the producer)! Probably under the guidance of their producer, the band started a lucrative action in late October ‘08 to get their album promoted in areas where it hadn’t come under much media attention yet, by putting a list of radio stations (with their request phone numbers) in no less than 28 of the States on their MySpace page, asking the fans living in those neighborhoods to call the stations and request TTF songs (more specifically for their then recently released single The Wreckage) be played! In early November then, Bauchert started his professional graphic and multimedia design company…why yes!, you’ve guessed right: he indeed, in true DIY-tradition, did the rather excellent artwork and design of the album cover and booklet! In conclusion, it’s been a long time since an Emo-geared album could catch my attention for as long as it did…and in all honesty, that doesn’t mean I’v grown bored with it already…quite on the contrary, because I really haven’t been able to analize the complexity of the music completely! Regretfully, there’s only so much time I can give each release that falls under my querying ears, as so many more albums await my attention and review! So…very nice album indeed, and although I’m sure many a “normal” Emo fan will instantly fall in love with …In Pursuit Of Tomorrow, I would like to recommend it specifically to those among you who like a bit of a chalenge in the music they listen to! 90/100 Tony. |