NeverScreamNever!

Asking Alexandria; Imagine a twisted ‘free for all’ mosh-pit between Enter Shikari, Attack Attack, and Bless The Fall. At least then you’ll be scratching the surface of pinning down the bands sound…

Yes. The British outfit have possibly one of the most bizarre sounds I’ve heard, yet it’s not a bad thing by any means. First song Alerion bursts in with the whole techno vibe coupled with metal guitar riffs, meaning that the ravers can rave, and the metal-heads can either mosh or do that thing were they deny they like the band but secretly they have lead singer Danny’s picture in their purses – n’aww.

The Final Episode [Let's Change Channel] (and no I’m not talking about last nights Big Brother) is exactly like a heavier Shikari, and as a reader in the latest issue of Kerrang perfectly put it: “Every song is brutal and makes Shikari sound like they’re singing I’m a little teapot!” Probably most interesting of all is it’s not until the 3:10 mark that we can actually get our glowsticks out and embrace our inner demon of wanting that ‘bad ass’ synth

A Candle Lit Dinner With Inamorta starts off sounding like an extremely fast subliminal message telling us to bow down to the band – and who knows it could be? As far as the rest of the song goes it’s actually ‘pretty soft’ (used lightly) in comparison to the previous two tracks. Again it’s towards the end of the song we’re joined by that Ibiza sounding club-ness; yay for synthesisers! Now all we need is that beach and sea then we’re good to go!

Nobody Don’t Dance No More. Aside from the name sounding as if it was derived from Of Mice and Men, it actually borrows that Shikari ‘sing along trend’. You know, the one where the band all share the vocals and it gets all the fans excited at every show even though they were expecting it? Fair play to the band though, it works a treat!

Now before this article gets longer then Chris Crocker’s Brittany memoirs, lets zoom through the rest of the album!

Hey There Mr. Brooks is pretty disappointing. The little ‘break’ around the 2:24 section sounds boring and is such an anti-climax it even manages to put Go Audio’s split to shame. – Come on you have to admit, it was inevitable. Hiatus is a welcome addition, a pure non-guitar and vocal track makes it a distinctive piece of the album, and a nice little gap filler. If You Can’t Ride Two Horses At Once You Should Get Out Of The Circus just left me thinking “WTF” – True quote, but it does have a decent little break down at the end. A Single Moment Of Sincerity starts to finish off soft, and then ends up suddenly going back to screamo; probably done for the laugh/surprise? It did ruin the ending though as it was actually something different for a change. Not The American Average the EXACT same thing happens as the previous track.

I Used To Have A Best Friend [But Then He Gave Me An STD] (that’s the track name by the way, not some ‘coming out of the closet’ announcement for all you conspiracists out there) actually goes back to some decent material. The vocals sound great and go along with the guitar perfectly, so major props to AA there. A Prophecy has an epic verse, then goes into some immense techno. I Was Once Possibly Maybe Perhaps A Cowboy has ‘possibly maybe perhaps’ one of the mightiest breakdowns that I’ve ever heard, seriously you all have to check it out! And finally, When Everyday’s The Weekend is basically a mixture of every song on the album as a whole, making it a perfect track to end the album with a bang – or heartbeat in this case.

Summary: Without a doubt this album has some little gems that are sure to make rockers ‘stand up and scream’. At times the album does get a bit monotonous  and you end up wanting something ‘interesting to happen’, which is why A Prophecy is such a key track.

Now one question left… ‘who’s Alexandria?’….

Words by: Jamie

Photo: Emily Pearson: Link