Straight Line Stitch - When Skies Wash Ashore
Posted on August 19, 2008 at 8:00 am by admin
It’s always tempting to run out and beat up on a band that spends time both singing and screaming these days, as just about everything gets metalcore or emo tagged, and as negative terms (just in case you didn’t know, back in the day those were real musical genres, not insults).
To a lot of people, the vocals stand out in music, and certainly the screaming from Alexis Brown comes close to a female version of Howard Jones from Killswitch Engage. There’s a lot of singing too, but the songs aren’t just as simple as scream verse/sing chorus, as there is a lot of singing interspersed between the action. The singing however comes closer to general rock than what you’d expect when supported by music such as this.
The music itself is amalgamation of alternative metal (running chords, especially for some of those choruses), metalcore (especially with the single note breakdowns), and generalized heavy riffing between the alternative and breakdowns, and even a few attempts at thrash and death metal. Unfortunately there are also some moments that comes dangerously close to nu-metal with some overly simplistic drop-hopping riffs, string slack and some points where the music is driven directly by overly effected guitars.
The whole attempt is melded together pretty well so it doesn’t come off as a cobbled up mess, yet at the same time it feels like the band wants to progress forward into something more substantial, instead of holding themselves back impress their peers. It’s especially apparent when it comes time for a breakdown, as the tempo drops tremendously, and it feels like Straight Line Stitch tries hard to figure something out a little better than a simple sing-note breakdown, but doesn’t quite make it out all the way.
There are of course also those very catchy moments caught with the vocals, be it hooking singing or the rhythmic delivery, or something to grab and pull you in from the guitars, which unfortunately get held back by some of the more cliche moments.
For the moment, “When Skies Wash Ashore” is a decent attempt for a first signed release, but with stiff competition from Caliban, I Killed The Prom Queen, Diecast, The Agonist, In This Moment and Killswitch Engage to name a few, it becomes easy for Straight Line Stitch to get lost in the mix - even with some of the differences. A few more creative steps may be needed to stick around forever.
Released August 19th, 2008
Straight Line Stitch at MySpace
Koch Records at MySpace
Buy this album at Amazon.com and Amazon.ca
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