I couldn't wait to listen to this album. The press release that came with claims that "As earthquakes and tsunamis crash and pound to reshape the landscape, so too will 'From This Vantage', as it sends you on an unforgettable journey and leaves you mesmerised." Now that sounded pretty impressive, I thought. So I eagerly rushed to put the sophomore album from Tennessee-based orchestral-rockers The Ascent Of Everest into my CD player. I pressed play and sat back down, trembling slightly, nervously awaiting the earth moving experience that was surely about to ensue.
As the intro to the opening track 'Trapped Behind Silence' slowly faded in, I held my breath, just waiting for the song to kick into life. But after nearly three minutes of not much happening apart from my face gradually turning an unhealthy shade of blue, it faded back out again. Strange, I thought. But then 'Return To Us' crashed in with it's epic Arcade Fire-esque strings and pounding beat. "Here we go!" I said to myself. But after showing a minute or so of promise, the song died back down again, and became just as dull as the previous track. And that's when it began to dawn on me; maybe the press release had been telling porkies. Maybe the whole landscape-reshaping, natural-disaster thing had been a bit of an exaggeration.
My suspicions were confirmed by the third track 'Dark, Dark My Light' , as, although there's a hint of something that could perhaps be a good song underneath all of its slightly pretentious pizzicato strings and harpsichord, it doesn't really go anywhere. The next track is the soothing and more light-hearted 'Safely Caged In Bone', which is the highlight of the album, mainly because it's the only song that even comes close to making me feel any sort of real emotion. But then 'Sword and Shield', 'Every Fear' and 'In And Through' all merge together into a sort of drawn-out grey mush, and the eighth and final track 'From This Vantage' just drones by in a forgettable, uninteresting kind of way.
Here's a bit of friendly advice to bands who use vocals sparsely in their songs (listen up, The Ascent Of Everest). If you're going to leave the vocals out, something else has to provide the melody and the hooks. You can't just ignore them altogether. Unfortunately, The Ascent Of Everest do exactly that for the majority of 'From This Vantage', meaning it becomes mere background music. I don't even mean like the good, ambient sort of background music; this is more like a peripheral annoyance, like the ticking of a clock, or the gentle rattle of a broken fridge. There are no real dynamics and very little movement throughout the entire thing, and as it's almost forty-five minutes long (despite only having eight tracks), this results in one very boring record. Whatever the press release says, this album won't be reshaping anything, and it won't leave you mesmerised - just a little put out that you've wasted three quarters of an hour listening to it, when you could have been fixing that pesky fridge.
wow. did u listen to this record. I just got it digitally today and am patiently waiting on the vinyl. I must disagree entirely with your poor review. first off did u listen to the record honestly? the last song "from this vantage" is the motherfucking jam! its dynamic in so many ways. The mid section is so heavy and i see u writing drone. It has elements of metal almost.
No Drone though. The album does do that but tastefully.
I think honestly u are a newb and u need to listen to it again and rethink ur comments, we all have been eager and let down before but i was equally anticapating this release and it satisfied me to the max. And There are lots of vocals, on the whole record that are spot on. Devin Lamp there singer is bringing it harder than before. The Three way harmonies. Did u hear those.
three more things:
A. The three songs that merge??? together are all three entirely different beasts.
B. Are u sure u listened to the whole thing? Because u poorly classified the entire last 3/4ths of the record. Atleast poorly compared to the already shitty review.
C. D's Nuts.
here is a review of ur review:
Newbie: a slang term for a novice or newcomer, or somebody inexperienced in any profession or activity. Contemporary use can particularly refer to a beginner or new user of computers, often concerning Internet activity, such as online gaming. It can have derogatory connotations, but is also often used for descriptive purposes only, without a value judgment.
nah i'm not saying that using strings is always pretentious, i just thought that this whole package was a bit... well, yeah - pretentious. and i know that it's not meant to be no-brainer-smash-hit-material, but i found it really dull, even after multiple listens. i get it, i just don't like it really...
and i guess i owe you an apology 'johnnyk', i didn't realise your opinion was so much more valid than mine!
One thing that really bugs me about this review is the ostentatious use of the term "friendly advice." And you're saying the group is pretentious? If you're not hearing the dynamics, perhaps you should turn up the hearing aid.
samlee, ur opinion is obviously more important that mine. thats why im not writing reviews for this website. as a journalist u have a responsibility to uphold honest and balanced reporting, and im not trying to say my opinion is more valid. i just thinks urs is lopsided and not fair to the record at all. i took a second to review many of ur other reviews, and it seems u hardly ever give any band more than a 2 or 3. i felt the pretension wasnt coming from the record but actually from yourself.
i think your confusing pretension from these guys with ambition. this record is very ambititious, they have changed directions entirely. without ambition there is no progress, without progress, you will have lots of bands to give shittier reviews for.
Hey johnnyk and awedding look at it this way, at least this review has highlited the record(maybe in not the way you would have liked) but you obviously liked it enough to comment here and disagree, so there is a positive side.It has generated a debate, so I guess it proves that this act at least have merit in causing a reaction either way. As for being balanced, I think a review is about giving your opinion backed up by your own evidence,thus its much more subjective than merely reporting something...
your opinion and my opinion are just as important as each other...
you think this album's great, i think it's rubbish... as bill says, it's just subjective. as a music journalist the only thing i have a responsibility to do is to be honest all the time, or what's the point? you can say what you want about the review, but you can't say it isn't honest...
and i've only written a couple of other reviews for this website, one of which was a glowing live review of florence and the machine, and the other was a review of gorillaz latest single, which i gave 4 out of 5.
ahhh. fair enough. i may have gone a little far now looking back, but its a good record period. ur opinion is cool. i dont want to make ascent of everest fans out to be any bigger of assholes than i have proven to be thus far. u r honest, even if brutally. but only honest to urself. i encourage others to check this record out myself.
i apologize dude,
final statements on the matter.
smoke some weed and listen to it again.
sam why are you being given instrumental records to review anyway .... ?
as you said, your only good reviews have been for middle of the road pop pap like gorillaz or florence, so perhaps its your editors fault for giving you an album to review of a music style that you clearly either dont like or dont really have much of a clue about....
and ps -: you are not a journalist .. dont think that writing reviews for a barely better than average website makes you one.
craig22779 wrote: sam why are you being given instrumental records to review anyway .... ?
as you said, your only good reviews have been for middle of the road pop pap like gorillaz or florence, so perhaps its your editors fault for giving you an album to review of a music style that you clearly either dont like or dont really have much of a clue about....
and ps -: you are not a journalist .. dont think that writing reviews for a barely better than average website makes you one.
Woah, Woah, Woah..
Now I'm not saying all of us writers here at GIITV are gonna become these top flying successful music journo's, but I would say without a shadow of doubt we are journalists...
Sam has written a piece (whether or not you disagree with it, that 's all down to opinion), a piece that has consequently been published on a web publication. Therefore making him or anyone else who has had there work publish on this very website, a journalist of some sorts. You don't have to work at NME to be a certified music journo....
and ps to you craig: the comment about the site was just kind of uncalled for mate, if your unhappy with the site, or if you find it 'slightly better than average' (the probable sole reason justifying that claim in your head being that you disagree with this review) then to be frank you know where the door is...
I think GIITV is a great place for budding writers like I and Sam to start actually writer and get their work out there...yeah it may not be a looker like other zines... but we're working on that! I think you'll find the content is just as good as any other zine, if not better.
I'm not saying people can't have their opinions, but people should be able to state them in a polite manner. And clearly by looking at your comment above you just don't seem able to do so...
blimey, it's lucky i don't get offended too easily...
just a few points to address here i think:
1. if people only ever reviewed music they like, it would be a bit pointless really wouldn't it? in the same way that nobody ever listens to fearne cotton when she says she likes something, because she claims to love everything, reviews etc would just get ignored.
2. 'a barely better than average website'? as antonio says, if you don't like it, you're more than welcome to sling your hook. i know that i wouldn't have wasted my time reading the reviews on a website that i didn't like, then signing up to it just so that i could let the writers know that i wasn't their biggest fan.
3. and who are you to decide whether i'm a journalist or not? you haven't got a clue what i do!
* is unaware of shoegaze's influence on the use of vocals in post-rock *
* is unaware that post-rock lacks pop hooks and melodies *
* is unaware of post-rock *
* is music journalist *
Quick, internet teen music journalist samlee, name three peers or obvious influences of this band (HINT: The Arcade Fire is not one of them) and explain how this album measures when compared to them!
* is unaware of shoegaze's influence on the use of vocals in post-rock *
* is unaware that post-rock lacks pop hooks and melodies *
* is unaware of post-rock *
* is music journalist *
Quick, internet teen music journalist samlee, name three peers or obvious influences of this band (HINT: The Arcade Fire is not one of them) and explain how this album measures when compared to them!
Quick, pointless poster and general jeb-end yesacs, name three activities or obvious better things you could've been doing other than tracking down this site and creating a user profile just to slag off a writer whilst masturbating into a sock.
Jarock87 wrote: Quick, pointless poster and general jeb-end yesacs, name three activities or obvious better things you could've been doing other than tracking down this site and creating a user profile just to slag off a writer whilst masturbating into a sock.
Jarock87 wrote: Quick, pointless poster and general jeb-end yesacs, name three activities or obvious better things you could've been doing other than tracking down this site and creating a user profile just to slag off a writer whilst masturbating into a sock.
So you agree then?
I disagree with his opinion on the album, but I don't then think that then makes him a bad writer, he's made it clear enough why he doesn't like it.
Jarock87 wrote: I disagree with his opinion on the album, but I don't then think that then makes him a bad writer, he's made it clear enough why he doesn't like it.
Well good, because I actually agree with him (not as harshly, though) but his points of reference are way off. That's the main problem. He basically said he didn't like it because it wasn't The Arcade Fire, which shows a complete misunderstanding of what he was listening to. Expecting hooks on this album is like like saying Picasso was a bad painter because he can't draw a face right.
yesacs wrote: * multiple users criticize the quality of a review *
pfff, look at these fanboys
Four complete unknowns suddenly appear criticising the same review with no history of posting on GIITTV (except for one solitary post between them)? Not fanboy behaviour at all.
And as well as that, your *let me explain what has just happened within asterisks for you* style is a) condescending, b) smug and c) totally unnecessary.
