minorthreat78's Full Review: Worship and Tribute * by Glassjaw
Okay, we'll start this out simply enough:
* If you consider Red Hot Chili Peppers a little too hard for your tastes, skip this CD.
* If you hate "that music that the kids listen to nowadays with the screaming and the loud drums and all that", definitely skip this CD.
* If the CD's title, Worship and Tribute, leads you to believe this is a compilation of classic gospel songs and you somehow managed to buy the album and, not having listened to it yet, decided to read this review of it...return it to the store. Or, better yet, burn it.
* If you enjoy hardcore, rougher-edged emo, or more aggressively styled metal...read on.
I throw in these caveats for simple reasons. Primarily, because Glassjaw is not exactly the least abrasive-sounding band out there. Granted, there are less mainstream-friendly albums out there, although not many from major labels, and fewer still open up with the raw aggression of the opening tracks of Worship and Tribute.
From the first bars of the first track, "Tip Your Bartender", it becomes clear the band doesn't want to give the listener the soft sell. Brutal drum-beats, electronic percussion, bass and screeching guitar greet the listener as Daryl Palumbo's quirky, nasally-inflected growl come wailing at you.
The rampage continues on "Mu Empire" and expands on the plaintive "Cosmopolitan Bloodloss", which features one of the more intriguing lyrics that can be understood at a conscious level with "We are the most impassioned ugly people".
The band's rapid-fire time-signature changes and angular guitar riffs meld well with the highly malleable vocals, a trait that serves well in the less high-octane track "Ape Dos Mil", a song that has a lumbering feel to it that oddly reminds me of early '70's metal (that is, if it had modern-day production technology at its disposal).
That sense of sluggish intensity is shared on the track "Must've Run All Day", with distinctly less success. Here, the song seems to drag with little clear direction until finally falling asleep in mid-moment like a heroin junkie. But hey, its not a bad song; it just goes on a bit too long.
If I were to point out a single flaw in the album, the preceding song would be an excellent example of it. While pretty much every song on this album is, at its heart, well-crafted, and all have some interesting or memorable parts, the album suffers under the nebulous problem of Getting Too Cute. "Must've Run All Day" is a good song that drags on too long; and the bridge on "The Gillette Cavalcade of Sports" (wherein Palumbo imitates a sportscaster) is initially interesting, but, on repeat listens, a bit tedious. Some outros go on a bit longer than they should, and the lyrical content of the songs is occassionally indecipherable.
Mostly, though, the album is quite good, even in spite of the little flaws. If you're into hardcore or more aggressive metal, and don't mind the more nasal vocals typical of emo bands, this album is definitely worth your consideration.
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