At The Drive In - in•ter a•li•a

At The Drive In in many ways, are THE post hardcore band.  Outside of seminal acts like Fugazi, At The Drive In in the early 2000's defined post hardcore.  With the release of their 1996 debut "Acrobatic Tenement", I felt like they had a rocky start.  Instrumentally it was a sound record, and thankfully Cedric Bixler-Zavala was right off the bat a dynamic front man capable of stunning performances.  But I felt like at the time they weren't there yet.  The songwriting was lacking and I felt like more often than not were just imitating the sound of other bands at the time.  However, in 1998 At The Drive In upped their game with the surprisingly sold "In/Casino/Out".  This album showed frontman Cedric began to write much more compelling lyrics and really began to let lose in his performances.  The result was a much heavier and more chaotic sound for At The Drive In.  However, in 2000 with one album At The Drive In made themselves legends.  "Relationship of Command" is an all around timeless album.  This album from start to finish was explosive, outrageous, hard hitting, and totally out of the box.  There were legendary explosive hardcore tracks like "One Armed Scissor" and slow burners like "Invalid Litter Dept.".  Hell, we even got a glimpse into Cedric's future Mars Volta side project with "Non-Zero Possibility".  That was 17 years ago.  After all this time, how does At The Drive In's sound hold up?

(Let's just get in the mood shall we)

From the sound of this intro, I honestly thought I was really going to dig this album.  “No Wolf Like The Present” starts off with tons of bizarre sound effects that sound like they could have probably ended up on any older At The Drive In album.  And when that opening riff comes in, I actually get really pumped up and excited.  But let’s talk about Cedric’s performance though.  It’s alright in the long run, ad he certainly comes off refreshed after taking 17 years off with the band.  While I do love a lot about this track, I have one major issue.  This come off very robotic sounding, and very clean at the end of the day.  But while it is very clean and straightforward, Cedric’s lyrics and the very wild sound really drive home the fact that At the Drive In are at least seriously trying.  Whether or not they actually succeed is up for debate, but this opener isn’t really that bad.  Even the follow up track “Continuum” isn’t necessarily bad, and the energy up until this point continues to really impress me.  At the very least At The Drive In  continue to bring to the table what made them famous years ago.  The vocal performances from Cedric continue to be wild and the lyrics are just as grizzly.  But as much as I’m enjoying this album so far, I get the feeling that At The Drive In are trying just a little to had.  So for the very casual fan, and even up to this point a more hardcore fan, up until “Continuum” we haven’t heard anything yet that really too bad at all.  But then we have some seriously awkward moments as well, like that really bizarre vocal breakdown of Cedric’s that comes off really cheesy.  Sadly, by this point things are going to out of whack.  From the first time I heard “Governed By Contagions” 6 months ago, the first think I thought about this track was just how seriously bland it was.  The intro on this one is seriously ugly, and when the main riff makes it’s appearance there’s seriously nothing special about it at all.  Instrumentally, I feel like any alternative band of the mid 2000’s could have wrote this.  Then we have Cedric’s lyrics, which as weird as they’ve gotten from time to time, they’ve always sort of being kinda catchy at the same time.  But his lyrics on “Governed By Contagions” are a bit too catchy for my liking.  Not to mention, this track as a whole continues to come off seriously ugly.  The production is sloppy here, and the constantly shifting guitars on the chorus are distracting more than anything.  Cedric’s lyrics as they push onward become seriously desperate to grasp on to any of his hardcore fans, and no, it doesn’t come off good at all.  Then we have tracks like “Pendulum In A Peasant Dress”, which for it’s first few seconds sounds alright.  But as soon as At The Drive in venture off into these more abstract passages the guitars come off more and more ugly.  Which brings me right back to my thoughts that I had earlier, At The Drive In are trying way too hard.  Instrumentally, this one is seriously a head scratcher.  But it’s a shame, because Cedric’s vocal performance on “Pendulum In A Peasant Dress” may be the album’s wildest, it really sticks with you too.  A lot of these tracks I WANT to like, but there’s too many tracks here that should have never saw the light of day.

By the time we get to “Incurably Innocent”, it’s hit me that as this album keeps going on, I have less and less nice things to say about it.  It’s rapidly becoming less of a post hardcore album and sounding more and more like an album that could have been made by literally any mid-2000’s “edgy” alternative rock band.  And if you like that kind of stuff, than you’re going to love all of this.  But for me, this is some of the safest hardcore I’ve ever heard in my entire life.  Even the few tracks on here that I have enjoyed have little to no lasting power.  This track at the end of the day just sounds like the major closing of all of these seriously ugly instrumentals with Cedric once again coming off as taking himself way too seriously.  Then comes a track like “Call Broken Arrow”, and at this point I literally feel like this sounds like half of the other songs on here.  This album has just gone from lazy to extremely repetitive, and Cedric’s melodies continue to miss everything they’re aiming for.  The instrumentals also continue to come off sloppy as anything, with every somewhat interesting moment clouded up by everything else here that comes off ugly.  There’s almost no continuity here, and the songs continue to have no definitive features.  Plus, I don't even know how I haven’t said this yet, but At The Drive In’s signature sound that once came off as so unique is coming off seriously dated.  “Holtzclaw” is up next, and at the very least this one has an idea and it sort of sticks with it.  I actually do enjoy some of the guitar lines here, even though they continue to be a serious far cry from what At The Drive In once brought to the table.  Cedric’s vocal performance on “Holtzclaw” is even more passionate here.  For a few short minutes on this one, At The Drive In actually sound like they’re not trying to please anyone, and as a whole this one comes off really enjoyable.  It’s streamlined and aggressive, and it’s just as abrasive and wild enough to set them aside as well.  “Torrentially Cutshaw” once again comes off like At The Drive In is cutting loose and really putting some effort in.  Now, I’ll be honest, this isn’t the At The Drive in that we all know and love still, and this track is still pretty tame by their standards.  But Cedric’s performance once again here comes off like he’s actually interested in making some abstract music again.  While It’s upbeat and it’s furious, this leads me to an issue: I’m not sure if At The Drive In are going to continue to make music, but if they are, they’re going to need a LOT of tweaking.  They’re going to find a way to continue to rejuvenate their sound because their classic sound is on life support over here.  

At The Drive In aren’t done with us yet.  When it comes to the very twisted intro of “Ghost-Tape No.9” they’re certainly starting to get to me.  The more I hear these very twisted intros, the more I feel like At The Drive In are coming off really desperate.  As far as the rest of the track goes, ohhhhhhh boy.  I certainly see what At The Drive In were going too here, but boy does it every come off as ugly.  I feel like the drum portions here were played on garbage cans, and Cedric’s slow burning performances have seriously not aged at all.  The guitars floating through the background are actually sort of cool, but overall this track is way too cheesy and most of all muddy for my liking.  Sadly, I hear tracks like this and hope At The Drive In never record another song.  “Hostage Stamps” is our finale here, and when I hear tracks like this I get even more aggravated.  Mostly because the instrumentals here are actually wild and Cedric’s performance here is one of the most off the wall performances I’ve heard all year.  Clearly, At The Drive In have been holding out on us.  “Hostage Stamps” is exciting and heavy, hell I actually can’t wait to listen to this track again (which is something I haven’t said or thought this entire review).  Boy oh boy, this could have been so much better.  

Rating: 6.6/10

Give A Listen To: “No Wolf Like The Present”, “” Continuum”, “Holtzclaw”, “Hostage Stamps”

Overall Thoughts:  You know it really kills me to see a band come back after all these years and try so hard and come up this short.  This album is a mess almost completely.  There are passable moments that make you think that At The Drive In could very easily make another classic album.  But at the end of the day, their sound is beyond dated.