posted 09/23/2008 (Tue) @ 08:00 am
>>> Music Reviews
Ashes Divide - Keep Telling Myself It’s Alright (2008)
Hard Rock / Stadium Rock / Pop
Don’t Be a Square
- Stripped Away
- Denial Awaits
- Too Late
- Forever Can Be
- Defamed
- Enemies
- A Wish
- Ritual
- The Stone
- The Prey
- Sword
When Billy Howerdel formed A Perfect Circle, he wanted a woman to sing the words. He got Maynard Keenan of Tool. That might have been a mistake, and possibly a regret in Howerdel’s book at this point: Keenan’s distinctive voice drew the support of droves of Tool faithful, but with the Tool faithful came the assumptions that A Perfect Circle was a “side project of Maynard James Keenan.” With expectations set high by the brilliant and unique guitar riffage present on 2000’s Mer de Noms, A Perfect Circle’s follow-up Thirteenth Step failed to make the same impression outside of a spare few tracks. What it boiled down to was that they had essentially become a Tool side project at that point, sonically if not in fact.
“Keep Telling Myself It’s Alright” is Howerdel’s long, long-awaited new record, ostensibly free of the influence of Tools. This time around, he’s taking the Reznor approach and doing all the heavy musical lifting himself: composition, guitar, and vocals. Can he stand on his own two feet?
Not for very long. While Howerdel’s much-lauded skill in creating guitar-borne ambiance survives in spots, nothing here is immediately gripping like the spidery, harmonic-laden riff of “The Hollow”; the attention-demanding power chug of “Judith”; or the whisper-sung, electronic jungle catharsis of “Thinking of You.” Unfair to judge the output of one band against another? Perhaps, but like a hard drug, classic A Perfect Circle haunts the dreams of thousands. We collectively breathed a sigh of relief at the debut of that band’s cerebral brand of hard rock, much needed at a time when Limp Bizkit and Papa Roach leeched radio airplay.
“Stripped Away” is a passable opener and one of the better Ashes Divide songs, but its simplistic, bastardized Eastern riff still comes off rather one-dimensional in the end. It’s the combination of evolving instrumental interplay and a suckerpunch chorus that makes first single “The Stone” the head of the pack—that, and a vocal melody that doesn’t strain Howerdel’s admittedly paper-thin voice too far out of his range. The rest of the tracks mostly fall short of expectations: “The Prey” sounds like a purloined Queens of the Stone Age riff; the morose “Denial Awaits” is a perfect example of why Howerdel should continue to hide behind a more capable vocalist, if these are the types of songs he has stored up; and “Defamed” is just way too… happy sounding and bland modern rock for comfort.
Perhaps it’s simply a case of rediscovering sure footing. Mer de Noms exhibited the results of years of playing roadie for top acts like Smashing Pumpkins, Faith No More, Nine Inch Nails and Tool while recording ideas in secrecy on the side.
As the old saying goes, “A lifetime for the debut, two years for the follow-up.” Keep Telling Myself It’s Alright feels rushed and unfinished—if it all crackled with the fiery energy of “The Stone,” or better yet, some of the songs Howerdel thought up while he was only allowed to tune guitars on stage, it would probably have landed a spot on more best of lists. Unfortunately, it’s little more than a disappointing mess of barely-above average stadium rock.
“The Stone” music video
Tags: a perfect circle, average, disappointments, hard rock, howerdel, tool
