Pros: Transcendant sound scapes take music art to a new level of thought and wisdom,
Cons: Erm, it will leave you and the world feeling numb around you after its over
The Bottom Line: APC have done it again with their stupifiyingly intelligent rock album which has been brought out into this world in the purest form of perfection.
bequietnddrive's Full Review: Thirteenth Step by A Perfect Circle
Ladies and Gentlemen, I'd like to introduce myself, for I am a young chap who has been interested in music for quite a while now, and since this is my first review I just like you guys to bare with me. Please mention that you thought this review was helpful or not as I am pretty "Weak and powerless" in Epinions at the mo. (forgive the pun) This review is quite weird because I sometimes tend to have the summary of a bands album at the start of the review but bare with me its just the way im wired. Besides your eyes have definatly already glanced slightly above to see the perfect score Ive given this album. Its worth every star believe me.
There are a lot of bands that I have loved over the years, not just for being heavy but for pushing the envelope in their particular genres if you can even categorise them into one. Bands like Deftones, Tool and Nine inch nails have compeltely re-written me as a person and the musical rulebook. MAN as well as his girl and entertainment also needs his background music and this album really has the kind of atmosphere and tone that you would find yourself forgetting about the horrors of real life and simply lift you up to a state of well being instantly feeling better about yourself as the musics atmospheric soundscapes sooth you in ways that you never thought possible.
THIS ALBUM WILL MAKE YOU THINK ABOUT LIFE IN A NEW PERSPECTIVE
Lets get down to it then A perfect circle is the brainchild of one guitar tech Billy Howerdel, it is HIS band and some people think that because the singer is MAYNARD JAMES KEENAN they automatically think that he is the frontman. Bill Howerdal is one of those guys that does all those tweaking bits to the album and other cool complex stuff behind the scenes, but not only this he also plays some cool gee-tar. The drummer (Josh Freese) is also one of the most important assets to this band as he keeps the tempo and structure of the entire album moving along at a Bullet trains pace of swerves, curves and spirals of beats layered to perfection.
The circle has changed its many faces quite recently with the addition of James Iha (Smashing Pumpkins) and Jeordie White (Ex-Marilyn Manson Bassist and the artist formerly known as Twiggy Ramirez) Paz has left A Perfect circle and has also left Zwan so I have heard. But there is also another behind the scenes addition. (there is quite a lot of collaboration to this album from outside sources such as Danny Lohner from NIN)
You might have heard APC's first outing the 2 million selling Mer de noms (or Sea of names in French) their soothing yet loud and sweeping musical melanchony have given many listeners 40 minutes of joy only to replay the album again and again, this stuff is addictive for I have bought the previous outing and it is really worth buying just to see where it all started.
This album is much more advanced, longer than the first one and easier to get adjusted to than say Tool. Tool are one of my fav bands (but the amount of time it takes for Tool to click is longer than while APC just clicks almost straight away and I found out about this band through knowing the first single from Tool (Schism) on Kerrang TV. If you havnt heard of a band called Tool its Maynards main band for he is a singer in APC which is his side project against his main magnum opus Tool. This guys voice is just so amazing and I beleive is the best voice in the music industry at this current time. He is also crystal clear when singing and you wont have to get the book out to check if he did say f''k you or not. He has one of those magnifacent vocal chords that when he shouts or screams it wont hurt it will just give you adrenaline to jump up and down a lot.
APC-Thiteenth Step lasts around 50 minutes in total and starts off with a slow burning song called 'THE PACKAGE' Guitar strings are plucked softly for about 30 seconds before the MONSTER 'BASS' kicks in, I had this in my car and had to instantly turn it down because of the vibrations and reverb I was getting from the speakers, I have a ford KA so the cars tiny but the speakers are big and old. At this point you can tell that Jeordie has not had to sacrifice much of his heavy bass lines since his departure from Manson and he will give you that message at the start.
Maynard mutters CLEVER GOT ME THIS FAR/THEN TRICKY GOT ME IN
ILL TAKE JUST WHAT I CAME FOR/ THEN IM OUT THE DOOR AGAIN
This is a cool song that lasts a surprising 8 minutes, (This track is reminescant of the slow heart pounding EPICS of TOOL)
The next track is the single "Weak and powerless" and is a bit different from the other tracks off this album, most reminiscant of the first album because of the way the guitar is plucked but it seems even older than this, that is because Billy and Maynard worked on this before APC even started, Billy left it for a while then Maynard for this album decided to provide lyrics for the track which then breathed new life into the song.
MAYNARD sings into the main course of the song
DESPERATE AND RAVENOUS/SO WEAK AND POWERLESS OVER YOU
The NOOSE describes how one is stuck along a certain path of self destruction and needs to break free. MAYNARDS voice is ever so delicate when he sings IM MORE THAN JUST A LITTLE CURIOUS HOW YOU PLAN ABOUT GOING ABOUT MAKING YOUR AMENDS TO THE DEAD. I like this track a lot because of the relation of the Noose that is always forcing us in Paths we do not want to take but may have to for the good of many
The next track is called BLUE and is more up scale than the previous tracks which sees the album beginning to pick up speed and pace as well.
This album appears to be more experimental as its previous counterpart and you can tell the chemistry between the band members are finally beginning to be rooted more firmly making the band explore new heights of sound and progress.
Such tracks even have joint crossovers, I call these joint ventures aftershocks and its something tool do a lot with their albums. For example at the end of Outsider and onto the next track Crimes the music can still be heard from previous, these following tracks only tend to last around 2 minutes average, with TOOL these tracks were usually internission tracks or they were actually Introductory tacks to the next song and it is this kind of intelligence and imagination that has made these people a shining success. The tracks actually make the music flow more acceptably more like a storybook which makes for a great experience.
Now we get to the most curious track that is quite like the calm before the storm. At this point the album is at its most mellow as Maynard talks about a special girl who tends to his every need, the track is called "The Nurse who loved me" and as Maynard sings IM TAKING HER HOME WITH ME/ALL DRESSED IN WHITE/SHES GOT EVERYTHING I NEED. SHE ACTS JUST LIEK A NURSE. You can hear violins as well as what sounds like music played through an old grammorphone. The efffects you get are quite surreal yet beautiful. The song appears to be about, well you know, a crush on a nurse, they can be quite sexy sometimes but its the deepest and happiest the album is going to get, it feels kind of like a dream sequence, before the nightmare begins.
This next track is heavy as hell and will immediatley having you jump out of your seat and slapped about, this track is all about someone looking after a smaller perhaps weaker body or PET. I think Mynard is singing about his kid and that he will protect him whatever, he sings ILL SAVE YOU FROM CHOICE, and later he howls GO BACK TO SLEEP, the guitar really picks up and everything else follows, the collaboration from James Iha and Billy is really impressive to hear.At the peak of this song it gives me goosebumps when he screams the BOOGEYMEN ARE COMING At the top of his voice. This is definatly one of the strongest tracks on the album and one of my favourite.
STAY WITH ME/SAFE AND IGNORANT/JUST STAY WITH ME/I WILL PROTECT YOU FROM THE OTHER ONES.THE EVIL ONES. GO BACK TO SLEEP. At end of this track we hear yet another crossover with maynard whispering GO BACK TO SLEEP.... and the song pours over its contents onto the next track called appropriatley LULLABY where he attempts to calm the "PET".
Someone is using the higher pitch of their voice to hum the theme to PET, I think its still Maynard, even though this track is short its still quite haunting.
Which brings us to our last track........ GRAVITY In music I believe beginnings and endings to albums are important because they decide on the amount of times the album will be listened to, much like the end of a film or book. I always beleive the final track is important, and the good thing is this track really accomplishes that well. With Maynard finally accepting life singing and just wants to heal and moans I CHOOSE TO LIVE/I CHOOSE TO LIVE at the end. Which brings the album to a finish
Another work of art and it seems that APC will push even more albums than before, these people are the kind of heros we need to stop the music industry from falling flat on its spotty acne infested pus filled face. I hope you have enjoyed reading my review and I hope it has helped you or encourage you to at least think about buying this work of art, cause believe me you wont regret it.
Recommended:
Yes
Great Music to Play While: Getting ready to go out
Virgin recording group A Perfect Circle has concluded a half-year creative process of emotional soul-searching with the completion of their much-antic...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.