As alternative music continually reinvents itself for whatever reason it becomes evident to certain bands that the perceived constraints that genre can bring are simply there to be broken down. To shamelessly steal a phrase from Mr Barney Boom, ‘genre terrorism’ is rife nowadays as the most progressive of bands seeks a violent compromise between styles. The thing is, that although in practice this is a fantastically exciting idea, the truth is that there isn’t that many bands around right now that can genuinely pull it off.
Black Cross try to do so, and are to be admired for their efforts. Unfortunately the end result sounds like a cut and paste of genres, from the angular sounds of Rival Schools to the driven rock of early Feeder and the anthemic posturing of Hundred Reasons. Take the title track, which swerves from juddering post hardcore to melodic heavy rock in a few breathless seconds. Each individual section is admirably competent and fluid, yet it feels like the band have attempted to shoe-horn as much in as possible. The harsh guitars melt away in an instant as the vocals switch from growling to soothing, but there is no sense of coherence, no common ground.
Frustratingly enough, when Black Cross settle on a particular sound they conjure up some fantastically striking imagery and melodicisms. The mournful cello line elevates ‘Gift To The Sea’ above the sum of its parts and adds texture to an already rich palimpsest of jangly riffs and crashing drums. ‘Ice Box In The Alley’ staggers towards the angular punk of the Icarus Line, driven by Ryan Patterson’s squalling (sic) guitar and Evan Patterson’s punching bass.
‘Commercial Break’ loses its direction amidst a cacophonous wail that devolves into a dully predictable chord progression that seems far too pedestrian for a song that threatened to spaz its way onto the dancefloor. The promisingly energised ‘Plank Walker’ silps too easily into cruise control and ventures nothing new or exciting past the first verse and when placed next to the truly thrilling old school hardcore of ‘Bitta’s Walk’ it only serves to highlight the dichotomy of Black Cross – sometimes annoyingly faux-progressive, sometimes excitingly simple.
Perhaps another listener might appreciate what BC are trying to do here and they are to be commended for not turning out an album of identikit post hardcore tracks. However, Art Offensive should be approached with a certain measure of caution since it sounds like a band who don’t know what they want to sound like – to me, this suggests that their next album will be a killer but this one’s too confusing to really impress.
Ben
www.equalvision.com
www.black-cross.com