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| Album Overview |
Title: Crimson
Release Date:
23 May 2005
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Return to Alkaline Trio overview
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| Our Review |
| Feel |
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70 |
| Stickyness |
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50 |
| Life |
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55 |
| Overall |
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58 |
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It all began in May 2003. Alkaline Trio were making their way up with the release of "Good Mourning". Up until then, they had perhaps been the opposite of Mainstream. For all the hardcore fans, this can kill a band. Derek Grant, formerly of The Misfits, left his previous band for the trio. Another step in the direction of mainstream was their latest creation. Crimson.
Derek Grant brought a lot to the band, including an ability to play around with the sounds of various string instruments as well as a synthesized keyboard. This sounds comes through very well on tracks such as "Prevent This Tragedy" and the album's first single, "Time To Waste."
Time To Waste began showing up on the radio several weeks before the album's debut, and was surprisingly well received, and a heavily requested songs in cities such as Los Angeles, Detroit and the band's native Chicago. In association with Hot Topic, the band released Time To Waste as a single CD with the song "We Can Never Break Up," which will not be on the album as an added bonus. The company produced 9000 copies, all of which have sold out. Evident that the band is finally knocking on some doors.
The focus of this album seems to be geared more toward the horror punk aspect that the band leads with. With lyrics such as "Tried to get by on bread and water/Craving blood poured from the altar now" and "Well first thing's first/We've got to find a way/To make the beauty of the/Nighttime last all day" It shows that the genre spawned by the Misfits isn't ready to give up yet.
Another point of interest in this album is the trading of lead vocals, which isn't new to older Trio fans, but will show new fans two completely different sounds. Matt Skiba, the band's guitarist and "lead" vocalist sings a lot of the faster pace, heavier songs. Dan Andriano, the bands bassist has a lower pitched, smoother voice than Skiba, and while usually lending his voice to the slower paced songs, feeds the faster pace of songs such as "The Poison" and "I Was A Prayer."
What other band do you know who has a song about the Manson family murders? Give a listen to track number 7, "Sadie" which interestingly enough first appeared on the bands BYO Record split with One Man Army. A newly recorded version provides different pacing in some parts in addition to a better recording of the female voice at the end, making what she says actually decipherable.
The Alkaline Trio has apparently used this album to break into the mainstream with a combination of new and old sounds. While people who have never heard the band will enjoy the catchier tunes such as "Time To Waste," "Back To Hell" and "Your Neck," older fans of the Trio will love how songs like "Mercy Me" and "Smoke" bring us back to a sound captured in previous albums.
It's not that this band hasn't been making music that everyone can get into, with their splicing of pop-punk and renewal of horror punk, they have simply been waiting for their music to be more widely appreciated. With the forthcoming of such bands as The Used and My Chemical Romance, the originator of the horror-pop-punk sound will finally take the stage in the foreground of their genre with this album.
The combination of powerful guitar riffs, progressive bass lines and a great backing up with the drums, in association with the experimental sounds of the keyboards, proves that this album is exactly what the Alkaline Trio has been working hard to put forward. The die-hard Trio fans will appreciate what the band they love has done, and many of these new songs will catch the ears of many new fans, and it's about time. |
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