Abandon All Ships – Geeving

I’ve been finding it tougher and tougher to review submissions like Toronto’s Abandon All Ships lately.  Hardcore like this just doesn’t do much for me if it doesn’t have some sort of ulterior agenda (like narrative purpose or thematic arch), and don’t even get me started on anything with a vocoder.  To add insult to injury, the band weighs in at a bloated six members, making it a darn shame that talented groups of young musicians are falling victim to this kind of trend dependent drivel.

To be fair, there’s a fair amount of “variety” across their debut, Geeving, but as implied by the quotations, none of it does the band any favours.  Simply put, this is faceless hardcore – like the stuff that likely caused Trustkill Records to rebrand last year – meets the worst of today’s power-pop scene (if that’s what we’re still calling it). Angelo Ata’s deep throaty roar is a dime a dozen, indistinguishable from the hoards of imitators out there.  He does what he does competently, but he sounds more intent on following the herd than offering anything unique.  As established in opener “Bro My God,” every few choruses co-vocalist Martin Broda chirps away with that nauseating, electronically enhanced vocoder pitch, sure to make eyes roll with Breathe Carolina comparisons.  Together they trade on and off predictably like a host of other like-minded bands (ie. A Skylit Drive) that I would rather purge from memory.

Musically, generic breakdowns and stock soundboard/synth beats meet for a bipolar contrast ranging from angry to tranquil.  Tracks like “Family Goretrait” exemplify all that’s wrong with commercial, made-for-Hot-Topic hardcore, recycling the same thudding drums and tedious breakdowns, while those like “Strange Love” certainly won’t convert any skeptics with its sugary, cookie cutter dance synth bursts.  The contrast between styles can be downright comical at times, especially when Broda and Ata sing in tandem on tracks like “Guardian Angel.”  Not to pigeonhole the genre, but when you hear Ata’s gut wrenching grows in a duet with Broda’s sappy lines like “I’ll be your guardian angel/your sweet company/no matter where I go/I’ll make sure you’re all I see,” there’s just no way you can take the band seriously.

There are just so many mediocre bands following the clean-vocals-meets-doomsday-hardcore formula these days (ie. Alesana, For All Those Sleeping, A Static Lullaby to rattle off a few) that the addition of Abandon All Ships just feels unnecessary.  Furthermore, their sorry attempt at innovation with the addition of a vocoder (sorry guys, but that device shouldn’t be used by anyone but the folks in “Autotune The News” or Antoine Dodson) arguably marks a new low for anything associated with hardcore (although to be sure, Brokencyde still wears the worst crossover crown).  Unfortunately the album is quite well produced and the band presents themselves quite well, so I fully expect Geeving to do quite a bit for the band amongst whatever niche seems to be driving this movement.  But from where I stand, count me out.