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I Am The Avalanche

Wolverines

Written by: PP on 19/03/2014 22:32:48

It took I Am The Avalanche six years to write a follow-up to their self-titled debut album in 2005. It took only three to write the successor to the excellent "Avalanche United". It looks like Vinnie Caruana is starting to get a hang of writing songs again, and while the tendency for these sorts of gravelly but melodic punk rock bands is to write the same record over and over again, their highly anticipated third album "Wolverines" is not an identical copy of its predecessor.

In comparison to "Avalanche United", the new record sets the overall tempo down a notch, and focuses on bigger melodies of the anthemic variety at the expense of some of the raw and explosive natured songs of the past. "Amsterdam" had an almost aggressive edge to its vocal lines, featuring Vinnie at a near-screaming stance during its chorus, and "Holy Fuck" had a noticeable edge to it despite being essentially a shouty ballad. Here, the gravelly melodies are catchy, upbeat, and bright, albeit slightly unvaried in the long run due to the lack of moments where Vinnie reaches into that near-scream department. Sure, you can argue that he does that on the title track to an extent, but given its slow nature, I'm not sure it's the same thing, and either way it does mean many of the songs do blend together because of their blatant similarity in terms of melody.

That said, the songs still flow nicely and feature catchy structures despite being more midtempo in their nature. Caruana shows how good of a vocalist he can be on "The Shape I'm In", "Young Kerouacs", "Two Runaways", and "Where Were You", delivering some memorable gravelly melodies for you to sing along to. These are songs that - just like the album - are punk rock at heart, but with a desire to sound bigger and more ambitious. Perhaps we'll see a more nuanced shift towards alternative rock on the next album, perhaps not, but one thing is for sure: the songs on "Wolverine" might not be spectacular, but they are extremely consistent throughout the album with solid sing along type melodies song after song after song. Standout tracks in the vein of the highlights from the previous album are missing, but on average the record is more steady.

Download: Two Runaways, The Shape I'm In, Young Kerouacs
For the fans of: Make Do And Mend, Hot Water Music, Monuments, The Flatliners
Listen: Facebook

Release date 17.03.2014
I Surrender Records / Rude Records