After touring together on the successful and socially conscious Plea for Peace tour, Alkaline Trio and Hot Water Music have once again combined forces, this time for a split release of unprecedented magnitude. Chicago natives Alkaline Trio pick up where their first Vagrant Records release From Here to Infirmary left off, offering a dose of pop influenced punk rock enveloped in the shadow of death and despair with slivers of light penetrating the seams to tender a glimmer of hope and consolation. All that and a Hot Water Music cover as well. Gainesville, Florida favorites, Hot Water Music are still hot off of their recent Epitaph Records release A Flight and a Crash. With their contribution, which includes 2 Alkaline Trio covers, the band treads on familiar ground, churning out the type of raw and intensely passionate songs that have helped make them one of the most beloved bands around the globe. Both band's contributions are brand new and exclusive to this release. (Taken from www.interpunk.com.)
This Split starts off with the Alkaline Trio portion, and for this they contribute 3 tracks, 2 new ones and one cover. Alkaline Trio is one of my favorite bands, so I knew I would like there songs on here. Well here’s what I thought.
Alkaline Trio is...
Matt Skiba - Guitar, Vocals
Dan Andriano - Bass, Vocals
Derek Grant - Drums
1. Queen of Pain – This isn’t just the best Alkaline Trio song on here, it’s the best song on here by far. It starts with a really good guitar riff with a backing riff and goes into like a pull off slide type thing. Matt’s voice is awesome, and so are his lyrics. This is one of Alkaline Trio’s best songs ever. (10/10)
2. While You’re Waiting – Starts out kind of slow and speeds up with these random things being said in the background. Goes into a verse with no guitar, and then the next time around it throw random notes in here and there. It also has a really catchy chorus, Matt’s sings something about dying but it’s kind of like happy. Good solid song. (8/10)
3. Rooftops – Here’s AK3’s Hot Water Music cover, and it’s quite good. Starts outs a little weird and goes into a palm muted verse. Then goes in to the chorus with Matt and Dan both singing and Matt kind of yelling which sounds cool. I’ve heard the original or this but if it’s anything thing like this I may have to check it out. (8/10)
Well now we come to a band I’m not real familiar with, I’ve heard 2 songs by these guys, one was on Punk-o-Rama 7 and one was on the Tony Hawk’s Underground video game and if I’m not mistaken I hated both of them. So with this be any different for me or do these guys just suck lets see.
Hot Water Music is…
Jason Black – Bass
Chuck Ragan – Vocals/Guitar
Chris Wollard –Vocals/Guitar
George Rebelo – Drums
4. God Deciding – As soon as I heard this I liked it. It’s the best Hot Water Music song on hear. Starts out really odd sounding and slows down for the verse. The vocals in the chorus are perfect with there lead singer singing and then the backing vocals just make it great. A big surprise for me but this song is awesome. (10/10)
5. Russian Roulette – Starts out with acoustic guitar, and the other instruments fade in really nice. It’s got some muted guitar and some really good singing. I also really like the guitar riffs in the later verses. Very good song. (8/10)
6. Radio – Here we come to the first cover, and it has nothing on the original. One thing I like is that they use 2 guitars, and therefore they try a lot of new things. I don’t think the singing sounds right either. It’s not great and like I said isn’t near as good as the original, but it’s a new twist on an old favorite. (7/10)
7. Bleeder – This is an acoustic cover of Bleeder,and again has nothing on the original, and I first of all think it would be better if it wasn’t acoustic. Its not that it’s bad but it just sounds to calm and doesn’t catch the energy the original. So it gets a little boring, but it’s still ok because it is Bleeder after all. (7/10)
Best Tracks:
-Queen of Pain
-God Deciding
While this is only 7 tracks it clocks in right under 24 minutes long, and that’s pretty long for an EP. IMO that’s worth 10 dollars or so because these are all decent songs, but even if you don’t have the money or want to just check it out, www.jadetree.com is freely distributing MP3s of Queen of Pain and God Deciding. Which are the 2 biggest reasons to buy this and both are 2 of the best tracks either band have ever recorded, and I highly recommend anyone that reads this should listen to those 2 songs if you haven’t already.
All in all this is really good, I was really surprised with all the songs, especially the Hot Water Music ones. I hope you enjoyed reading my review, and it’s my second review so it’s not very good.
