Just Like Vinyl

Just Like Vinyl

Written by: PP on 18/01/2011 18:58:51

Many were left in disappointment when The Fall Of Troy disbanded in early 2010, only a few months after releasing "In The Unlikely Event", an album that was different and experimental even by this band's standards, lacking the sporadic intricacies of the band's past output, while still being a solid album if you ask me. Not to worry, Thomas Erak has been keeping busy since then in his new project Just Like Vinyl, which released its self-titled debut full length in October last year to little fanfare and promotion.

The release of the album carries both good news and bad news if you were a fan of The Fall Of Troy because of its polarizing nature. On one hand, it brings back much of the erratic guitar spasms of early The Fall Of Troy output, complete with intricate and incredibly technical passages that make most guitar players drool in jealousy over Erak's instrumental talent. On the other hand, the record is in many ways a logical continuation of "In The Unlikely Event", with psychotic screaming making a welcome return in great quantities throughout the record. Essentially, it's a combination of both styles, so you'll notice a strangely schizophrenic personality to the band as you listen through the album.

"Wisdom Teeth" opens the album with heavy guitar experimentation. Pedals and feedback are used extensively to create a track full of scratchy screeching, but it's a puzzling track in the sense that it doesn't really go anywhere, as if its only serving purpose was to remind people of Erak's signature guitar playing ability before the album gets going proper. "Cardiac Harassment", however, shows that logical continuation I was talking about before. Experimenting on softer, poppier corners of post-hardcore, the record still features Erak's signature guitar playing, but it is almost progressive in nature, with a big climactic solo-passage with screaming and loud instrumentation finishing the track off.

Then you have a track like "The Circulatory System", a much mellower track that's almost balladic in nature that recalls many experiments on "Manipulator". It is followed shortly after by a ton of harsh, manic screaming on "Death Of The Sheep", a track full of stop-star guitar sequences and classic "Doppelgänger"-era The Fall Of Troy instrumentation in general. The screaming is present in much greater quantities than on the last two TFOT albums, though it never reaches the same chaotic levels as on the first two records. This is unfortunate, because The Fall of Troy Just Like Vinyl are at their best when psychotic screaming creates a sense of chaos together with the unbelievable guitar intricacies Erak is able to fire up. It's really too bad Erak doesn't realize, or alternatively doesn't care, about his strengths as a songwriter.

With songs like "Kite" lasting well over eight minutes, the summary of "Just Like Vinyl" could read as simply as The Fall Of Troy returning with harsh screaming, but more focused on overall structure and atmosphere than technicalities, though these are also present. I think it needs no mentioning that The Fall Of Troy fans are the obvious group of fans interested in this stuff, but I'll say it anyway: check this out if you were into The Fall Of Troy, and are looking for the missing link between "Doppelgänger" and "Manipulator".

7

Download: Cardiac Harassment, Death Of The Sheep, Kite
For the fans of: The Fall Of Troy, O! The Joy
Listen: Myspace

Release date 28.10.2010
Self-Released


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