After The Fall – Eradication

With Eradication, After The Fall have delivered a truly puzzling album – in both a positive and negative way.

You see, on Fort Orange, the Albany, New York trio blasted onto my radar and blew me away. There was passion and sincerity in their straight forward and oddly compelling lyrics. There was excitement and energy in their balls to the wall onslaught of fast paced, technical punk; and there was something noteworthy about the album that kept me coming back for more. Fast forward a year later and I’m eagerly awaiting the follow-up, Eradication.

Sadly, my reaction to it was less than enthusiastic.  There’s still passion, there’s still sincerity, there’s still breakneck tempos and skatepunk that somehow crosses Strung Out with Strike Anywhere butEradication fails to captivate my imagination as much as it’s predecessor.

It’s too bad too, because there are some damn good tunes on here – that’s something I can’t deny. The middle chunk of the album is – upon further reflection – pure freaking gold. Starting with Stagnation that somehow reminds me of Raised Fist, After The Fall showcases the best of their best in the next few tracks. Throg’s Neck is slightly poppier, pulling in A Wilhelm Scream vibe circa Mute Print and has by far the best chorus of the album. Lifer is a drum led punk rock anthem and Authoritarian displays that technical Strung Out proficiency. Skip a few tracks and you get a sweet cover of I-SPY’s You Don’t Talk No Shit.

All of these songs are great, the problem is – the rest are somewhat forgettable. Soldiers kicks off the album on a sour note with a weak scream/drum intro. Power Trip is a venomous eighties hardcore track that has a strong chorus but indecipherable verses. Coward and Autonomy are both forgettable and the other tracks leave little impression either.

It’s all still there – fast, politically pointed, skate punk ala Propagandhi but half the album fails to capture me. Then again, I’ve still managed to listen to the album close to thirty times since I’ve gotten it- so it can’t be that bad. It’s just not that memorable either; and that makes it truly puzzling.