Review Summary: If everyone belongs there, it will hold us all together
Until
Illusory Walls, I never thought of The World is a Beautiful Place & I am No Longer Afraid to Die’s music as a coda for human life. To this point, the band has mostly been a meek emo/post-rock collective, the likes of which typically gather cult followings – perhaps some tattooed lyrics on the arm, maybe even a splattering of pins poking holes through otherwise perfectly fine backpacks – but nothing that would make you sit up and take notice that
humanity is fucked and society is crumbling before our eyes. I’m sorry if that escalated quickly, especially for an album whose name was inspired by a video game, but it’s prudent to understand that
Illusory Walls isn’t here to mess around. It tackles hefty topics such as corporate greed and its impact on the environment (“A four-hundred-thousand-dollar drug, versus one more time my mother’s hug / A private firm of equity dealt cancer into my family”), slave-making wages (“May the lower class remember this / and every rich man get what’s his”), technological displacement of human experiences (“The brain inside your phone knows how to get you home…Do you remember the name of the store?”), climate change (“Thick clouds of foul-smelling air / Polluted rivers, thinning hair”), fabricated media perpetuating violence and division (“You cry at the news, I just turn it off / They say there’s nothing we can do and it never stops”) …you get the idea, because if you’re like most people, you see it with your own eyes every day.
Illusory Walls is an era-defining record because like us, it is also immersed in troublesome times which as they continue have simply become “the new normal.” The band shudder at this thought and urge their fellow stewards to join them in building a better community for everyone: “The world is a beautiful place, but we have to make it that way.” In its own strange way, at least thematically,
Illusory Walls feels like their
Imagine moment.
Confronting topics with
life versus death implications begs music that speaks to its importance, and
Illusory Walls accomplishes that. It’s a tired term that gets thrown around a lot, but it really is a magnum opus in every conceivable way. The band’s fourth album is a massive evolution from their aforementioned emo/post-rock roots, lacing those concepts with progressive and metallic tendencies that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Coheed & Cambria or Circa Survive album. The guitars are warped and wiry, the drumming is complex and varied, and the songwriting is elaborate. There are two songs in excess of fifteen minutes, each featuring intricate breakdowns and triumphant choruses. Everything about
Illusory Walls is designed to raise the stakes, from the band shedding its musical identity to its songwriters coming out of their shells lyrically. It’s a stark transformation that seems to point The World is a Beautiful Place towards a broader scope – they’re still personal and introspective, only now they’re applying that pain and those unique stories to something of global significance.
In spite of all the flash and grandeur, there’s still something comforting about
Illusory Walls. The band might have grown into much larger shoes, but they maintain the clever wit and heart-on-sleeve lyrics of their past. The whole album is bursting at the seams with inviting melodies, often in the form of outstanding guitar work. Take for instance ‘Queen Sophie for President’, which boasts a guitar line that is arguably catchier than any chorus on the record. Even during this thing’s proggiest and most experimental moments, such as ‘Invading the World of the Guilty as a Spirit of Vengeance’ or ‘Died in the Prison of the Holy Office’, there is always something for the listener to latch onto. With the former, it’s some of the most well-executed dual vocals you’ll ever hear between Bello and Dvorak, succeeding to the extent that they almost mold into one voice; with the latter, it’s the infectiousness of that layered, curtain-call chorus “Away with God, away with love / Our hands are tied and stepped on.” Both of the ‘Blank’ tracks feature gorgeous acoustics and poignant words, while ‘Trouble’ could be the band’s best all-around song that clocks in under five minutes.
Illusory Walls certainly sees The World is a Beautiful Place & I am No Longer Afraid to Die morphing into something better and undoubtedly more complex, but they’re only able to do so because they keep so many of their core strengths intact. It’s a flawless maturation.
Illusory walls are surfaces that appear solid but aren’t actually there. The implication of this wonderfully epic slice of prog-emo is that in order to continue as a species, we must identify our imagined and at times self-imposed constraints and run straight through them. The consequences are dire…we simply can’t afford to stay afloat with the status quo. That’s something worth writing a sweeping magnum opus about, and The World is a Beautiful Place hit the nail on the head about as well as any artist I’ve ever witnessed in terms of trying to create a socio-politically motivated piece. Writing music with such a slant can be a delicate line to toe with any sort of grace, but at no point does The World is a Beautiful Place feel like they’re telling us something we don’t already know, much less preaching. They’re simply joining hands with us, admitting shared fault in this situation that we find ourselves in, and asking us to face the future as a united front in the name of progress. As they hope for society to break through its own illusory walls and reach a point of sustainable equity, they’ve metaphorically mirrored that act through their music – stepping through any imaginary confines limiting the style and scope of their craft. As a result, they’ve finally realized their full potential as a band.
