A Skylit Drive tries to push its experimental boundaries with its third release, “Adelphia,” emphasis on the word “tries.”
Though you’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover, the Lodi, Calif. based band’s proverbial cover tells listeners everything they’re getting into. Categorized as post hardcore, rock, experimental and screamo (a hybrid of the words “scream” and “emo”), the overall sound of loud electric guitars, heavy bass, pounding drums and crashing cymbals permeate every song on ASD’s record. It would be better categorized as noise.
ASD fans and supporters of the album are exactly who I thought they’d be: tween and teens thematically clad in black tees and jeans with tragically dyed hair and dense make-up surrounding the pain in their eyes. The band caters to them well, however, reaching into the depths of your heart and yanking out any teenage rage or rebellious fiber you had, breeding it into a festering anger toward the world.
Despite this image, the intriguing quality of this album is the vocals. Lead singer Michael “Jag” Jagmin alternates between high-pitched “shout singing,” where he’s not really singing but shouting really loudly while being on pitch every so often, and throwing in a hardcore, you-know-that’s-not-good-for-your-vocal-chords kind of screams. He sounds like a cross between a tone-deaf 14-year-old girl just learning to sing and a 30-something recovering drug addict in a metal band with an unkempt beard curtained by unbearably long, greasy hair.
Thankfully, songs such as “The World Ends in Whispers, Not Bangs” and “Air The Enlightenment” stand out on the record with a slower tempo and overall calm, almost gentile atmosphere. It’s a nice contrast to the general waterfall of noise that is constantly attacking the listener.
The album also follows a sort of concept, where it begins rather angry and forceful with “Prelude to a Dream.” But by the time you reach “I Swear This Place is Haunted,” the atmosphere of the album is desperately clamoring for an answer to whatever question the band seems to be asking. But this is where the variation ends. Everything else on this album maintains the isolated angry feeling of the disturbed youth.
Like the title of the 13th track says, “It’s Not Ironic, It’s Obvious” that this band still has a lot of growing up to do before it can be taken seriously. “Adelphia” lacks dimension and, though it caters perfectly to a specific audience, I wouldn’t recommend putting it on unless you want background music for writing livid and depressing entries in your journal.
Sorry, referring to Tim and Paige.
Are you the same people who wrote feature articles/profiles on A Skylit Drive? Just wanted to know.
Your a shithole 🙂
Yeah, I’m totally with you on this one Paige. I really enjoy ASD’s music, and while I dont think that Adelphia is on par with Wires, thats not the issue at hand. I am a 19 year old male and I have no problem listening to them, and I am nothing close to the authors twisted view of a stereotypical ASD fan ( tween and teens thematically clad in black tees and jeans with tragically dyed hair and dense make-up surrounding the pain in their eyes). I happen to appreciate the hardcore and metal genre of music. I listen to things as heavy as Darkest Hour and As I Lay Dying, but also enjoy bands like ASD and Emarosa who don’t come near being classified as metal. As an ASD fan, I take the “all ASD fans are emo” pretty personally. I also know other people my age just like me who listen to them and would take those stereotypes personally as well. Your critique of Adelphia musically isn’t far off because I was a little dissapointed with the cd myself. All bandshave fans that come from all walks of life, and that is what makes music, hardcore especially, so beautiful, because it speaks to so many people in so many different ways. It is one thing to critique a band, its another to personally attack their fanbase, because if it wasn’t for the people who buy their albums and go out to their shows, they would not be where they are today. It is also smacks of amateurism to take such a jab at people while critiquing a bands cd. You should stick to the task at hand and talk about the album, not making stereotypes (many of which turn out to be wrong). All in all this was a horrible portrayal of ASD fans and completely unnecessary.
Every band has to experiment. You act like it’s ohh-so-wrong for them to do it. Have you listened to other bands in that genre, they play the same stuff. It seems to be working, they have gigs, they are a well known band, and have many loyal fans. While your a journalist that I honestly never even knew existed, and probably will forget about soon. So it seems like they are doing a lot better than you appear.
Look at a crowd at any ASD concert, a variety of people show up, not just “tween and teens thematically clad in black tees and jeans with tragically dyed hair and dense make-up surrounding the pain in their eyes.” I take much offense to that, cause i wear colors, bright colors too. You really had to put jean on there, like you hever wear jeans, your not a ASD fan. My hair is a color found in natural, and really healthy, and it does not matter what band you listen to, I personally know people in the 40’s with hair more tragic than mine. Not a lot of people wear the “dense makeup” your talking about, and “the pain in their eyes”, you must be kidding me. Where is this anger you’re talking about, I don’t see it in the fans. I know people in their 20’s who listen to them.
Jag is the main vocals, but not the only one. Brian White, and Cory La Quay also do many of the backup vocals, which are the low sreams. He is actually singing, there is more than one voice, one type of vocal range. It isnt a random thing, the band put where the screams should be, and that is part of the song, not just all-of-a-sudden. You are very stereotistic, it’s rather sick.
The music does not “attack” the listener, the head phone isnt forced to their ear. Read the lyrics to “Prelude To A Dream”, the lyrics say, that the hero never dies, and sometimes you just need to get a way from a place. There is a message in all their songs, if you pay attention, listen to the lyrics, read the lyrics, the message is not anger. Adelphia has more of a mean than you can ever truely realize, cause you dont have the patience to listen to the music, there are words in the screams, listen and learn. The music is not depressing in anyway.
Im 15, however, I am not one of those “tween teens with dark make-up, tragic hair, black tee. At one point everyone has pain in their eyes. Everything you said in this article was very stereotypical, and in your point of view, you dont know how the fans feel, you never will. Thet all arent depressed and angry. Im a happy kid, i live a happy life, none of that is true about me. Its my music taste, not who i am inside. Asong can take you back instantly, to a moment, or a place, or even a person. No matter what else has changed, that one song stays the same, just like that moment. To a lot of people A Skylit Drive has a song like that to them, it does to me.