Review Summary: Gone Fishin, Found jeebus
I do not believe in god. I did at one point, but then I like to think I
grew up and left all that silly business behind. If you need jeebus to feel good about life, I won’t judge you (I will). But that is neither here nor there. Why does religion matter when it comes to music? It doesn’t. As someone who looks at religious folk with a cocked eye, I love many bands that fall under that ‘Christian Metalcore’ tag. Underoath were my gateway drug to
heavy music and they held prayer circles at their concerts…
‘Gwen Stacy’ love jeebus so much so that when they broke up in 2009, bassist/clean vocalist Brent became a preacher and a
positive speaker… Coming back to ‘The Life I Know’ 16 years later the first thing I notice is, damn those guitars are fuzzy.
What is one to expect from a Metalcore/Post-Hardcore album released in 2008? Well everything you just thought about, is here. Harsh screams and growls mixed with the ever present clean vocal chorus. Chugging guitars mixed with pop-punk leads and pinch harmonics. Drums that would fit into a NOFX album apart from the abuse of the double bass pedal and a hardly audible bass that when it does poke its head through you are reminded that the bass does in fact, exist in this style.
In 2008, I was not looking for a band to break the mould and add silly ‘Djent’ riffs into my metalcore. No, I wanted it to sound how it always had sounded to me. ‘The Fear In Your Eyes’ is the quintessential sound of this era of Metalcore/Post-Hardcore for me. It’s a pop-punk song covered with the illusion that its
heavy cause of the CHUG CHUG and RAHHH. But in reality that chorus and lead work is Pop-Punk, and I am here for it. The choruses throughout are great with Brents voice being a
perfect fit and counterpoint to Coles constant screeching. ‘If We Live Right, We Can’t Die Wrong’ has my favorite vocal lines and interplay between the two vocalists and the best drumming on the album.
The guitars are fuzzy in the mix. The distortion is turned way up along with the CHUGG. I for one love a good CHUGG, lots of people do and there is plenty of it here. The lead work is quite nice, they learn heavily into the pop-punk side of things with octaves and little runs full of hammer on’s and pull offs. The guitars are really a product of 2008 and love them or hate them, they are what they are. ‘Playing God Is Playing For Keeps’ has audible bass and its nice bass. Makes me really wish bands like this didn’t hate on the old bass like they do, get that bad boy out in front of the mix, and let it walk…
There is a 7min epic ‘Sleeping In The Train Yard’ that stands out as slightly overindulgent with a 3 minute repeated guitar line intro which does end
epically but also feels weird not being the final track on the album and considering it leads into the best track of the album ‘Gone Fishing..’ it feels like someone made a boo boo with the track order.
‘Gwen Stacy’ are a band that made a small impact on a every changing scene and really were left behind when ‘Djenty Bois’ decided to poke their heads into metalcore land. ‘The Life I Know’ takes one back to a simpler time, a time when the music had a bit more
heart to it and less of a waft of pretention and seven-string guitars having mini strokes.
