Emery - The Weak's End

The rock’n’roll growl. When you are a teenager exploring the musical landscape and first discover it, it is a thing of astonishing beauty. How can a singer make such a primal noise come out of his vocal chords? As time goes by you realize that a lot of the time it isn’t talent but rather lack of talent that leads singers to the growl region of their throat. When done properly, however, it is still a thing of beauty. Hell, I still get a little misty and excited when I think of Todd Lewis’ growl the fist time I heard “Motivational” live. With so many imitators in the recent trend of rock I was a little set back when I popped in this disc and the first thing I heard was a blood curdling growl…but first impressions don’t always tell the story. Before all was said and done, I stood in surprise at what a nice little album I had just witnessed. On their debut disc, The Weak’s End, Emery manages to succeed where so many fail, making rock that straddles the line between growling guitar rock, pop melodic rock, and dreamscape atmosphere rock. Doing a song by song breakdown would be informative but really wouldn’t fit the album, whose songs blend together in the nicest of ways. Sure there are some standouts like the ebbing and flowing “The Pony Parades” and the catchy riffed and beautifully titled “The Note From Which A Chord Is Built,” but missing the forest for the trees would be a big mistake. Each song has its own character but sticks to the feel of the whole, creating a very well-crafted album. Vocally, the sometimes dueling leads provide a ying-yang of growling and very soothing singing, with a touch of Robert Smith floating around in the pool. Musically, there are moments where riffs could fit easily into the latest punk darling's single or a Story Of The Year-type buzzworthy MTV2 clip, but this is mixed astonishingly well with an operatic building of feeling, melody, and mood reminiscent of Dredg. Rather than opening the disc and then proceeding to fall on growling as a crutch, Emery uses it as a device and instrument and as just part of the equation of the music. Like any good mathematician knows, the secret to handling an equation is balance, and this is ultimately what makes the album a success. Combining different tempos, styles, and moods, Emery has constructed one of the most pleasant surprises I have come across. A band I had never heard of and knew nothing about that jumped up and grabbed me by the ears like a Catholic nun. A very good debut worthy of praise. Take a little journey and give this one a listen; you won’t be disappointed. [www.emerymusic.com]