Review Summary: A promising debut that is only hurt by moments of self indulgence a lackadaisical pace and a lopsided album structure.
This Armistice’s debut EP“(New Breath+New Heartbeat=Change)” is a bit derivative and at times self indulgent but a mostly entertaining effort from a fledgling band. Now first off their sound falls somewhere between Emery, Tides of Man , Sparta and even a little bit of Secret and Whisper .I know what you are thinking, “awesome there aren’t enough of these experimental/indie/prog bands already” I understand the sentiment but these guys deserve at least a listen.
So, let’s start with the good the guitars are both played quite well creating vast aural environments that shift seamlessly but have a tendency to melt together, but I will get into that in a little bit. The drumming is well done, however the songs themselves are structured way more around the guitars, which at times seem to even overshadow the vocalist. The vocalist is sings in an angelic falsetto sort of voice, he hints at his range but he reels it in for a more subtle and nuanced performance to which I applaud him .
The biggest problem with This Armistice is that they do not know when to cut off. I know they describe themselves as “heavy chill” but with all of the songs eclipsing the six minute mark you have to speed it up a bit, for instance This Armistices’ title track is nearly eight minutes long and it follows an interesting route but ultimately fails because of pacing, any sense of urgency is scrapped because in the middle of the song we are treated to what feels like four different songs .Interestingly enough the song in question is actually one of the better songs, but the issue is that there is never catharsis or climax just a singular slow pace which gives the listener the feeling that the music is lagging. In comparison “Venona” on “Between the Heart and the Synapse” is nearly six minutes but the whole time you are like this song is amazing the time signature changes there are awesome chord progressions the song peaks and then we are finally treated to an ambient piece at the end. Now I will be the first to admit that verse/chorus/verse is used way too much in modern music but in the case of this band they may have benefited from a more rigid structure, their songs overall seem to get lost ,becoming nebulous and awkward . As a listener you should never have to say that an entire portion could be cut out of a song to make it better.
Another issue is they somehow feel the need to put an intro and an intermission to an already ambient and docile album; you have to wonder what they were trying to accomplish. Intermissions serve the purpose of calming you down from a heavy or hardcore portion of an album but these guys end up boring you with it, which leads me to question the overall structure of the album. The instrumentation during these sections are done quite well it just does not mesh well with an album this low key, you end up lulling your listeners to sleep. Moving on, the lyrics lyrics are vaguely spiritual and in a lot of ways hint a divine inspiration but they do not shove Christianity down your throat which I feel is a good thing because lots of bands with Christian members in them or Christian bands feel the need to do this and that can detract from the music and alienate potential listeners. Thematically they deal with issues of faith for example this is taken from the title track,
“Forgiveness to all who, to all who have sinned A young heart has the room to grow to truly love and bare the soul Aren't we all but fragile ones
Quick to fear and scared to love, to love
They deal with other issues such as the world changing around us and the existential crisis this can sometimes cause, the internal conflict between the heart and the mind that questions of faith can bring up, the need for love etc. Overall, the lyrics are accessible well written and easy to relate to. I would have to recommend this album with a mild admonishment download “(New Breath + New Heartbeat= Change)”“Bullet Holes in Concrete” and “With Clarity”. The other four songs are forgettable, of which two are simply filler. These guys have talent but as I stated before song length and album structure are there worst enemies. This Armistice has to realize that with a name such as theirs they have some huge shoes to fill but at the same time I feel that there is a possibility that they can with a little bit of trimming away some of the fat.
Pros:
Vocals –very soft, peaceful and hypnotic great
Lyrics- accessible ,spiritual but not alienating, well written
Instruments top notch boasting great production values
Cons:
Song length
Song Structure
Album Structure- Lopsided good songs at the beginning of the album
Unnecessary Intro and intermissions- They tend to drag on and lull you to sleep
