Except the geographical location, an exclamation mark less, the approach and sound makes the difference between the Welsh (UK) located Attack! Attack! and the Westerville, Ohio (USA) located, metalcore/electronicore band Attack Attack!. Hate to say this over and over, but a little more inventiveness and inspiration would be just great when people are about to choose their band name. It’s kind of starting with the wrong foot your career guys if there’s another band with the same or almost similar name in the business.
Formed in 2005 (while the band from Welsh seems to formed one year later…), some of their songs seems to contain Christian-based lyrics, but not all members of Attack Attack! are Christian, and do not consider themselves a Christian band. Musically, Attack Attack! merged the groove and aggression of Pantera with post-emo feeling and electronic sounds, features a djent sound to its guitar riffs played primarily in drop-G, and delivering a quite intense and disturbing mixture of melody and brutality. This third studio album by the band seems to be a concept album.
The original lineup consisted of Austin Carlile, Ricky Lortz, Nick White, Andrew Wetzel, and Andrew Whiting. Caleb Shomo joined the band as their keyboardist and Johnny Franck joined as rhythm guitarist and clean vocalist. Nick White left the band soon afterward and John Holgado became their new bassist.
In early 2008 Attack Attack! self-released their debut EP, If Guns Are Outlawed, Can We Use Swords? and later signed to Rise Records to release their debut full-length album, Someday Came Suddenly. The album peaked at #25 on the Billboard Independent Albums chart and #193 on the Billboard 200 with sales of over 3,600 in its first week.
Halfway through a tour supporting Maylene and the Sons of Disaster, vocalist Austin Carlile was fired by the band due to personal differences. He was replaced by Nick Barham, former vocalist of For All We Know. On October 19, 2009, Barham announced his departure from the band just two days short of their headlining tour. Caleb Shomo this time took over lead vocals while still performing as their keyboardist. The band headlined the 2010 Artery Across the Nation Tour with support from Asking Alexandria, I See Stars, Breathe Carolina, and Bury Tomorrow in early 2010 and performed three songs off their upcoming self-titled album: “Sexual Man Chocolate,” “AC-130,” and “A For Andrew.” On November 10, 2010, Johnny Franck announced that he had left the band in order to focus on his relationship with God. Caleb Shomo now performs both clean and unclean vocals. Sean Mackowski is also the band’s new rhythm guitarist. They reissued their self-titled album on July 19, 2011 with four new songs, the first songs to feature Caleb’s clean vocals, two of which were produced by John Feldmann. Also included are remixes of “Sexual Man Chocolate” and “AC-130” as well as acoustic versions of “‘I Swear I’ll Change’” and “Turbo Swag.”
On January 12, 2012, the band debuted the music video for the first single off the album, “The Wretched”, while the album was released on January 17, 2012.
Tracklist:
01 – The Revolution
02 – The Betrayal
03 – The Hopeless
04 – The Reality
05 – The Abduction
06 – The Motivation
07 – The Wretched
08 – The Family
09 – The Confrontation
10 – The Eradication
Although I’m not an unconditional supporter of this already considered new genre, “This Means War”, my first collision with Attack Attack! convinced me. Their music is kicking and alive, pounding and breathing, consistent and intense like a murder.
Maybe this has nothing to do with the critically so-claimed “reinvention of the metal”, but this is absolutely correct and crushing metal. And I’m not deranged by those techno-influenced breakdowns and keyboard interventions, I actually think they are fits right in into this furious, raging metal massacre, gives to this a more colorful and noisier taste.
And they have a few memorable choruses, some excellent riffs and they push their sound in this new, nowadays trendy direction, and I think there are plenty of quite interesting possibilities.
Worth to listen and we will see at the end of the year which band managed to deliver the most exciting release. For now, this is brutal enough for my taste.
Attack Attack! – Official Site
Attack Attack! @ MySpace
Attack Attack! @ Facebook
Attack Attack! @ Twitter
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiOepsyiVR8&w=545&h=307]
