Labels: Deep Elm
Review by: Andy Malcolm
Huh? That album title a tribute to Mr. Tolkein or something? Can’t quite see what it’s got to do with the music. Anyway, Appleseed Cast are another butt kicking emo hardcore / rock band courtesy of them Deep Elm boys. They refused to send us any promo CDs for review as they couldn’t figure out if we liked their stuff or not. I know I am poo at reviewing, but surely the grades 9/10 for Pop Unknown or 8/10 for Camber are indicative? Ah, oh well. Just means I will berate them for Diaries III forever more.
Right. AC. First up, “Marigold & Patchwork” which has appeared on a comp somewhere, as I’ve heard it before. The beautiful intro still does me in and makes me smile. Then it crashes into some soaring Sunny Day Real Estate style rock, but perhaps a little more hard hitting. The vocalist, Chris, has a voice that often seems on the verge of cracking and just giving up. Aww. It’s a very melancholic mood.
And it keeps on rocking from that point in. Mostly quite long songs, with guitars that swirl, dip, soar and dive, and generally just sound huge. They also resort to the gentle lull on songs like “On Sidewalks”, again in SDRE style, but those glisteningly sweet guitars are played so well. Best track is the totally awesome “Stars” which opens up like the finale of a lost Christie Front Drive masterpiece, then brings in saxophone, piano, and ambient sound effects. The song proper begins, it gets very ragged, seemingly on the verge of falling apart, and Chris sounds more Mineral / SDRE-esque than ever before. It’s shakiness and fragility just set it apart from anything else on here.
I love emo bands because they do stupid things like: print the lyrics in white on a sparse black and white photograph, with a large white patch obscuring the words for the first songs. They also have all the lyrics flowing into each other. Only in emo.
You like to rock? You like the singer who sounds unhappy? You like the Appleseed Cast. So do I.