Review: Attack Attack! – Self Titled

Artist: Attack Attack!
Album: Attack Attack!
Genre: Hardcore/Synthcore
Label: Rise

Given how much press they’ve received in the past year, its hard to imagine Attack Attack! only have one full length release under their belt. Released in 2008, Someday Came Suddenly ushered in a whole new phase in modern hardcore by interlacing heavy synth and autotune into the seemingly endless onslaught of chugs that is any sing/scream band in the scene and fans of the genre went absolutely absurd. Then, over the past year and a half of touring, the band lost two vocalists which, while some may say is bad for their career, kept their name relevant even more than their relentless touring schedule. Now, almost 18 months after the release of Someday the boys from Ohio return with Keyboardist Caleb Shomo on lead vocals and a self titled album that truly brings the chug, but manages to keep the hooks constant and catchy.

Kicking the record off with “Sexual Man Chocolate,” a song most fans have already heard via the group’s Myspace helps welcome listeners to the heavier feel of the newly refined Attack Attack! and does a great job of showing the strong vocal presence of Shomo. Now I have no problems with former vocalist Austin Carlile’s screams, but Shomo simply fits the group like a glove and that cohesion makes the switch in vocal styles feel very smooth as “Renob, Never” comes crashing in with a message to all the haters to keep their mouths closed. Its a solid one-two punch that gives you just enough synth and clean vocals to remind you its AA!, but not to the extent that it seems like a continuation of Someday and that alone is more of an accomplishment than most expected the band to do with this release.

Trying ever harder as the album moves along to break the mold most see them in, “I Swear I’ll Change” finds Johnny Franck’s now autotune-less vocals taking the lead for what is a musically deep track that never really connects on the lyrical end. Johnny has a great voice, yes, but the complex instrumentation that’s mixed with his cleans makes the majority of the song sound like a rip off of later From First to Last and its a hard mental image to shake. Luckily, the guys in AA! go even further off their normal beaten path on “Shut Your Mouth,” which is the very next track and one that is guaranteed to split fans more than any other on the album. Entirely electronic/synth, this song would fit better on the next Breathe Carolina release than this record, but the beat is catchy and that’s something no one will be able to deny. That said, its still an extremely out of place pop track on an album that has breakdowns throughout 90% of the songs and hurts the overall cohesion of the record.

The band returns to their hardcore sensibilities on the solid one-two punch of “A for Andrew” and “Smokahontas,” but its also around this time that this self titled record lost me. While these songs are heavier than anything the band has done in the past, it sounds EXACTLY like ripped off For The Fallen Dreams songs with more synth and cleans to it. I understand that many of the band’s fans probably don’t dabble in FTFD too much, but as a resident of the mitten state, I’m well versed in their chug heavy style and the similarities only grow more undeniable on “AC-130” [which also features the weakest breakdown I’ve ever heard in terms of gang vocals], and “Turbo Swag.”

Its not all lost on the back half however, as “Fumbles O’Brian” brings a sound very rooted in Someday Came Suddenly, but with stronger songwriting and cleans from Johnny. Also, the near 6 minute closer “Lonely” takes the band far from the beaten path with a mostly subtle and quiet track that finds Johnny belting over piano and synth. Its a great track that has solid transitions and truly boasts that “journey” feel any song over the 4 minute mark should, but I couldn’t help wondering why the entire record wasn’t this experimental and unique.

At the end of the day, the final decision on whether or not you’ll like this album all comes down to what, if anything, you like about Attack Attack! and your knowledge of the rest of the Rise Records catalog. While multiple tracks standout on the first listen, there is no denying the similarities between much of this band’s heavy sections and the entire For The Fallen Dreams catalog. Even if it was unintentional, the lack of overall originality is almost too daunting to warrant repeat listens. That said, the synth and cleans are better than they have ever been and the group is taking positive steps as far as songwriting goes. Perhaps a year without so much drama will produce a better product, but for now, the group still has a lot of work to do.

Score: 6.5/10
Review written by: James Shotwell

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8 Responses to “Review: Attack Attack! – Self Titled”

  1. dan says:

    terrible album… kind of terrible review.. both the vocalist’s are garbage, they cant preform live at all.. if you want a good rise release.. and a good live band.. go check out Pmtoday’s new album “in medias res”.. now THAT is fucking music.. this is recycled bullshit.

  2. James says:

    We gave the PMToday record a 9.5/10 I believe so we’re on the same page.

    What makes the review bad? This release may not be your cup of tea, but it is better than Someday by far.

  3. Travis says:

    I think you took the words right out of my mouth with this review. The album seems like they just half-assed it to me. I personally loves Someday Came Suddenly, because it was different than most of the stuff I had heard, and I loved the lyrical content of it. But then all the drama happened and I lost faith in AA! and hoped this album would get me back into them. Sadly, it didn’t.

  4. KalaKala12 says:

    I loved the album it sounds NOTHING like “Someday” Shomo is a way stronger vocalist than Carlile. The album is a great mixture of pop and hardcore sometimes you are wondering if your still listening to the same album because the genre of the album is all over the place. Id give it a 9.5 out of 10. Its definitly one of the best things I’ve heard so far this year

  5. Justin says:

    “While these songs are heavier than anything the band has done in the past, it sounds EXACTLY like ripped off For The Fallen Dreams songs with more synth and cleans to it.”

    You took the words right out of my mouth with this statement. I’ll just stick to FTFD. Nice try Attack Attack!

  6. Jowel says:

    I don’t understand why this album get so bad reviews… This album has a lot of variety and I didn’t find anyone talking about it… I prefer an album that has variety like this one than an album that you can’t name the track you are listening to because all the tracks are the same. And why are you talking about PMToday ..? they are not the same style at all… so why are you camparing them ? oh and by the way… AA! is one of the best bands I’ve seen performing (I’ve seen them two times) and god knows that I’ve seen a lot of bands. The vocals (not the lyrics…they are not great) are also really nice, Johnny and Caleb are beasts. This is for me the album that will play in my car for the summer.

  7. Marc says:

    I liked Someday Came Suddenly because it was a break from the everyday hardcore band, and a break from the crappy pop-hop that is 3OH!3. This album is too generic for my liking, and Caleb sounds almost identical to the vocalist from FTFD, and at times, sounds like Frankie from Emmure. Although I don’t agree with auto-tuning, I do believe that auto-tuning the clean vocals is a AA! thing, and the fact that they abandoned the synth-like voice makes the clean vocals sound very unoriginal. Also, the guitars sound remarkably like FTFD and Texas in July. I like this album, but I like Someday Came Suddenly so much more due to the fact that it was unique. Attack Attack! had a great thing going, and they did the synth driven “hardcore” better than any other imitator. Now, they’ve become the imitators, and have lost their uniqueness, and a large portion of their fan-base. Austin had a unique scream that became the symbol of AA!, and I feel that the loss of Austin really resulted in this band becoming just another hardcore band that will soon be forgotten.

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