| CD REVIEW Evergreen Terrace |
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Band : Evergreen Terrace Yeah, I know, we’re richly late in getting the review of this Jacksonville, FL based melodic Hardcore act’s newest album on-line! Which takes nothing awayfrom the fact that we feel this is one of THE feel-good albums of the year, simply for the exhilerating music displayed in the 11 tracks (with a total of 37:40 playing time)! Each and every song a winner? Yeah man, that’s how Evergreen Terrace goes about writing a new album! In the biography which comes along with our download promo copy, ET guitarist/ backing singer Joshua James explains how the band witnessed the status of the US economy reflected on themselves with gas prices going up and record sales goin’ down, and how this brought about a grim outlook for the future of the band. But when the band went into rehearsals to write the material for the new album in April of this year, it turns out all the hardships only helped the band members (who’re now minus bassist Jason Southwell as compared to their previous album and debut for Metal Blade, 2007’s Wolfbiker…review posted 3 August of same year – where you’ll be able to find a comprehensive history-of-the-band) in the writing process, as things “…just poured out into these songs. It ended up being the easist record for us to write because we had been through so much, and had so much built up inside of us.” Well, hardships weren’t over yet! On July 1st drummer Kyle Mims was involved in a bike accident and broke his clavical collar bone, and besides the fact that this put the band out of action for at least 4 to 8 weeks (during which the band would replace him with longtime roadie Caleb James – Caleb also playys in Casey Jones alongside his brother Joshua, or…just how small the world can be, eh?) this happened just prior to him getting health insurance from his work. One advantage about the delay in getting the review on-line, is to be able to give you the positive response the album’s release has been getting. In its first week of release the album shot through to several Billboard lists, making it to #17 on the Heatseeker chart, to #52 on the Hard Music chart, and to #53 on the Independent Album chart! Additionally, the album had a great first week in Canada, where the album entered at #55 on the Nielsen Soundscan Independent chart and at #76 on the Hard Music chart! Meanwhile, I’ve come to understand how ET goes about making their exhilerating tunes. You see, they mix catchy melodies with a touch of repetition and a sense for “variation on a theme” (meaning the repetition ain’t quite as repetitive as would appear at a first listen) into tracks with a volatile pace…and then of course there’s the great double-lead-plus-plenty-of-backings vocal approach (which is adapted in aggressivity depending on the individual song’s needs) of the band, which simply has no parallel! If you’ve never heard the band’s material music before, I strongly advize you to check out the band at either purevolume.com/evergreenterrace or myspace.com/everfreenterrace (at the latter you’ll find several tracks off older album alongside a track off the new album, plus a video for “Sending Signals”, also from the new album). Those already knowing what to expect might wanna catch the band on their soon-to-come European tour (at the very moment they’re still on an extensive US tour with For The Fallen Dreams and Asking Alexandria), as they’ve gotten themselves a spot on the Persistence Tour 2009, alongside heavieweights like Ignite, Biohazard, Agnostic Front, and a few others. For the Belgian area, that mmeans you’ll have to catch ‘em either on the first day of that tour (Nov. 27th) in Torhout (@ De Mast), or travel to Eindhoven’s (South of Holland) Klokgebouw on Nov. 29! At any rate, what with the other bands involved on those evenings, ànd ET to boot, you’re in for a great Hardcore evening’s festivity! 98/100 Tony. |