Imagine writing and releasing what would come to be considered one of the defining albums of an entire generation. Imagine buckling under the weight of expectation from the entire world and very publicly disbanding less than a year after releasing said album. Now imagine returning with a new record over a decade and a half later, following years of growing hopes and expectations from fans, press and even yourselves. How could you possibly meet those expectations?
In 2012, when At The Drive-In first attempted to bury the hatchet and perform together for the first time in 11 years, the results were mixed to say the least. The reports from those in attendance at one of the handful of shows the band played that year were very similar across the board: At The Drive-In performed well enough and it was great to hear those amazing songs live again, but something seemed off about the band itself, the spark having failed to reignite after all the time that had passed since their heyday in 2000. The reunion seemed to fade away almost as soon as it had begun, and any hopes that fans might have had for any new music faded with it. That is until January last year, when seemingly out of nowhere a cryptic teaser appeared online, hinting at not only another tour, but what appeared to be a clip of never-before-heard music. Was this real? Were At The Drive-In actually back?
It took almost an entire year for there to be any payoff to that tease, but in December 2016 it arrived in the shape of At The Drive-In’s first single in 16 years: ‘Governed By Contagions’. A raucous and scathing assault on the senses, it was a bold statement of intent from a band that many believed, quite justifiably so, was dead in the water. It sounded fresh, it sounded vital, and most importantly, it sounded like At The Drive-In. Soon after, the band confirmed that the song would appear on their forthcoming fourth full-length album, ‘In•Ter•A•Li•A’. Two more singles appeared in the run up to the album, ‘Incurably Innocent’ and ‘Hostage Stamps’, each keeping both the band’s famous energy levels and with them the expectations for their parent album sky high. Could ‘In•Ter•A•Li•A’ actually be a worthy successor to the legendary ‘Relationship Of Command’?
Following a tense few seconds of build-up and a promising opening riff, ‘No Wolf Like The Present’ bursts into life with all of the same pent-up electricity that typified At The Drive-In at their peak, immediately shaking away any cobwebs the band may have gathered in the past decade. From Omar Rodriguez-Lopez’s acrobatic guitar playing to Tony Hajjar’s mesmerising drum work, this is clearly a band firing on all cylinders, with no shades of trepidation to be found. Anyone worried that the album could be a lacklustre cash grab need look no further than the scorching second track ‘Continuum’, an exhilarating showcase for the band as a whole, but particularly Cedric Bixler-Zavala’s mesmerising vocal tics, his performance equal here to any from the band’s back catalogue. Both of the opening tracks are excellent pieces of work, but ‘Tilting At The Univendor’ is where it becomes clear that ‘In•Ter•A•Li•A’ is not just a rehashing of the band’s past glories. This song is among the best At The Drive-In has ever penned, taking some of their most head-spinning guitar riffs and tongue-twisting lyrics and somehow shaping them into an infectious, unstoppable freight train of a song.
Following the previously released ‘Governed By Contagions’, itself sounding even better in the context of the album, is ‘Pendulum In A Peasant Dress’, another highlight on a record bereft of low points. Its frenzied pace is matched only by some of the catchiest hooks found on the album, which is saying a lot as ‘In•Ter•A•Li•A’ is not short of memorable choruses. When it was announced last year that founding member Jim Ward would not be returning as part of this reunion there was worry that without his more stoic, straightforward post-hardcore chops the band’s new material could disappear into a progressive haze, as was the case when Cedric and Omar were left to their own devices in The Mars Volta. Those fears were massively unfounded though, with Ward’s former Sparta band mate Keeley Davis proving himself an ample replacement as both a guitar player and more grounded counterpoint to the high-flying lead playing of Rodriguez-Lopez.
‘Incurably Innocent’ comes next, the second single released still sounding huge here, and is followed by ‘Call Broken Arrow’, one of only two tracks on the album that really lets the pace slip anywhere below full-tilt. Even at a reduced velocity the band still sound as dangerous as ever, and it’s another wonderful example of At The Drive-In’s ability to craft insanely unshakeable hooks. The entirety of ‘In•Ter•A•Li•A’ manages to walk the fine line of being both hummably melodic and about-to-fly-off-the-rails exciting, right through to the closing salvo of the haunting ‘Ghost-Tape No.9’ and barnstorming new single ‘Hostage Stamps’. That tightrope walk between order and chaos was always the quintet’s greatest strength, and it has made the transition to At The Drive-In’s 2017 incarnation without a scratch.
And so we come to the big questions: 1) Is ‘In•Ter•A•Li•A’ a worthy successor to ‘Relationship Of Command’, and maybe more importantly, 2) does the album justify its own existence? The answer to question 1 is a tough one. ‘Relationship Of Command’ was a bolt out of the blue, a genuine lightning -in-a-bottle moment for music as a whole, and quite pertinently has had 17 years to live in the public conscious becoming as ingrained in our collective understanding of modern punk rock music as any other album that springs to mind. It’s a truly iconic piece of art, and as such it’s difficult to say if anything could possibly live up to that. The musical world that ‘In•Ter•A•Li•A’ has been birthed into is a very different one than the band existed in before, and it’s hard to predict if it could possibly have the same impact as its predecessor. However, from the first blistering seconds to the last, ‘In•Ter•A•Li•A’ is a beautifully exhausting, intriguing and unblinkingly triumphant record that never lets the shadow of what came before darken the light that pours out of its every facet. As such, the answer to question 2 is much easier to come by. That answer is holy fucking Lord, yes.