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Joshua Fit For Battle
To Bring Our Own End


4.0
excellent

Review

by Iluvatar USER (168 Reviews)
August 19th, 2006 | 130 replies


Release Date: 2002 | Tracklist


Joshua Fit For Battle are a strange little outfit. They’ve had a multitude of splits over their rather short career (effectively only making music for three years), but only ever put out one work that was really their own; To Bring Our Own End. It’s in fact very reminiscent of what one of its members would later defect to, Hot Cross, combined with what that member previously recorded with, Neil Perry. Thus, it mixes a healthy dose of screamo, grind, and pop to make a rather exciting record, if just not nearly enough.

The most readily noticeable facet of the music is the overwhelming chaos. Oppurtunist blasts in with no warning, guns-a-screaming and instruments-a-blazin’. Often, there’s no clear cut pattern as to what JFFB is doing, and often there really is no pattern to speak of in any sense. Song’s constantly bob and weave in and out of different schemes, and often the songwriting ends up taking a back seat to the insanity of the musicianship.

The most hippity-hoppity aspect of it is how the guitarists interweave all their parts into a greater whole. On To Bring Our Own End, the opening guitar harmony is one of the most beautiful moments on the album, and the ease with which JFFB transform them into a shredfest is too…well, simple and easy to describe in words. However, you can’t take away from what drummer Kevin, who is one of the most creative drummers I’ve heard in quite a while. While his regular drum rhythms are fairly solid, it’s the numerous fills he contributes throughout the album that really sort of create many of those “magic” moments on the album. The opening fill to Twelve Years of Catholic School And This is What I Learned is absolutely astounding, and the almost tribal sounding beat in Dreams is astounding.

Then there’s Larry, the vocalist. To be blunt, the mix isn’t kind to him at all. He’s very harsh, and it may be better that he gets pushed behind nearly everything else, but you also rarely get to enjoy the parts where he does shine. This Is Me Getting Stronger, while the most sweepingly stunning songs on the album, is only made so by his haunting vocals. His screaming is another story, as its generally grating and initially intelligible. They’ll grow on you, sure, and songs like Oh Good Its One of Those Reality Shows are delivered so passionately, you can’t help but identify with the subject matter.

One area where JFFB shine is their lyrical work. Instead of going poetic or prose-y with it, they instead opt to be perfectly blunt. They ditch cliché references, silly phrasings, and just say precisely what they mean without any stupid nonsense covering it up. Fuck the Men In Her Life[/i], essentially an ode to emotionally destroyed women in the world, is so brutally honest that it makes a deep impact on you, despite the fact it really says very little. Contents of an American History Class is a heated exchange about how America’s history being taught the children is, in essence, a bad idea, as it will only continue the cycle of violence. Whatever, I trust Larry to be telling me the truth at this point. The most currently poignant song, however, is Twelve Years of Catholic School And This is What I learned, a song de-humanizing priests for dismissing gay marriage, citing the fact that the writings that forbid it were written 2000 years ago by straight white males.

The force with which the lyrics are expressed, along with the intensity of the music, is what makes JFFB so great. Everything sounds impassioned and important when spit out through th sound machine that To Bring Our Own End ends up becoming. It can’t hold up for it’s ~27 minutes duration (there is around 12 minutes of blankness on Contents of An American History Class), and in the end it leaves you yearning for more, but as a whole it succeeds on nearly every level. It’s emotional, catchy, and kicks unhealthy amounts of ass. Just be sure not to play it while your reggaeton-obsessed friend walks in, or else a conversation on suicide will soon follow. Oh, how I wish the tears would go away.

Song's you should do Battle with har har
Oppurtunist
This is Me Getting Stronger
Fuck the Men In Her Life
Sleepwalkers Guide



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user ratings (288)
3.9
excellent


Comments:Add a Comment 
ToWhatEnd
August 20th 2006


3173 Comments


Exactly how many reviews did you write when Sputnik was down?

Onewaytrip2hell
August 20th 2006


508 Comments


Good review, once again;yes, this sounds cool./votesThis Message Edited On 08.20.06

Arrakakaka
August 20th 2006


685 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

Awesome review, this is personally one of my favorite albums. Like you said, the lyrics are real blunt instead of poetic. I've listened to this over and over again, it remains a favorite. It's a nice break from the grindish fast screamo I usually listen to.

whiteminority
August 20th 2006


74 Comments


Great band, great album.

Also this band hardly bares a resmeblance to CTTS, as JFFB are more chaotic and dissonant while CTTS have a more epic leaning and a more artsy feeling.

Intransit
August 20th 2006


2797 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

this band kicks incredible amounts of ass, as does this review

World Burns To Death
August 20th 2006


14 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

This album was the soundtrack for my sophomore year in highschool

204409
Emeritus
August 23rd 2006


3998 Comments


[quote=chan]Do they sound like the only emo band I've heard just cuz they were on tha punk listening party?[/quote]

Does it matter?

Activista anti-MTV
August 24th 2006


3154 Comments


DFel that was pretty harshish.

This band might be worth a shot.

threedaysago0130
October 7th 2006


4 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

Shock Value Records put this out on LP for the first time ever (with new artwork) earlier

this year. I got it on transluscent yellow/white split vinyl bitch!This Message Edited On 10.07.06

Electrocution
December 10th 2006


7 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

da fucking rule.This Message Edited On 12.10.06

Jack Wilson
March 11th 2007


313 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

nice review. i love this album.

Confessed2005
August 6th 2007


6156 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

This is the tits!

iamrockzorz
August 6th 2007


1029 Comments


I need this :-(

KritikalMotion
September 16th 2008


2282 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

sup this is good

DBlitz
September 16th 2008


1693 Comments


I got this recently, love it.

HighandDriving
September 16th 2008


3288 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

Josh Jakubowski is such an amazing guitarist, fuc king beast.

windpromoteshate
December 3rd 2008


178 Comments


Don't pretend like you can make out the lyrics in any "skreamy musik"...

sniper
June 23rd 2010


19075 Comments


I feel like this is under-appreciated.

WatchItExplode
June 24th 2010


10534 Comments


comment deleted for stupidity

sniper
June 24th 2010


19075 Comments


Yeah man this stands up pretty respectably even next to bands like Pg. 99 for this style in my opinion. I mean it's not quite as good but still a really solid chaotic screamo thing they had going on here. Love the lyrics.



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