Billy Talent – II

The true test of any art form is time. you may like this book,this CD, this painting now, but will you still like it three months down the road? A year? If you say yes, then you know that that piece of art is worth every sent you spend. Sadly, as reviewers, we don’t always get that luxury. We get the CD and have to get a review out for it as soon as possible. So we’ll sit with the CD for a week or so, get our opinions and then spit out a review. But those are our instantaneous emotions, who knows if that same album will bring forth the same emotions a few months down the road. so when we get a CD in advance, we really get the chance to put it to the test of time. Take Billy Talent‘s new album Billy Talent II for instance. I was lucky, I got it three months before it hit the street, so I’ve been rocking it solidly for three months straight thus far. And I’m still not bored of it, so it has definitely passed the test of time, because quite frankly Billy Talent II is a great album – and I’m still feeling those same emotions I had when I first popped this disc in three months ago.

Let me get this out of the way first, if you do not like Billy Talent from their first CD, you will NOT like this album because there is no huge change in sound anywhere on Billy Talent II. It is still the classicBilly Talent sound and songs I came to love from their self-titled effort, just heightened maturity and more experimentation to make the songs that much more complete.

Ben’s vocals are back and as strong as ever. He once again teeters between the melodic singing and sporadic screaming that through them into the mainstream three years ago, but this time it seems to be much more controlled and thought out. That’s not saying he doesn’t scream, anyone who’s heard the lead track and first single Devil In A Midnight Mass knows he still belts out a good yell, but he has toned it back a bit. The best way to explain it is by taking a quote from the singer himself: “When you’re telling a story or when you’re singing a song, you need question marks, you need commas, you need periods, and when you put an exclamation point, that’s when you scream.” Ian D’sa and John Gallant have both supplied more backup vocals compared to their debut too. Songs like Surrender and Pins and Needles show D’sa having mellower, more harmonious vocals carefully layered below Kowalewicz’s trademark roar.

The vocals are far from being the only thing to have improved on this album, musically, Billy Talent have taken giant steps forward too. There aren’t any blistering solos or mind numbing drum beats, rather, the band has all worked together for a more cohesive sound and attack. Listen to the guitar work on Worker Bees melded with the chants and fluid bass line and you’ll see exactly what I mean.

Probably the only thing on this album that hasn’t improved are the lyrics – and that’s only because thee was almost no way they could improve much. Kowalewicz is still a story teller with songs about priests molesting boys, the herd mentality of an army, a few love songs, a friend’s battle with drugs, a navy officer writing his last letter home and my personal favorite, an attack on all the scenescters who like to talk shit (Where is the line? Where is the line? Between your fashion and your mind).

So suffice to say, I love this album. It’s been three months and I still love this album, so it has survived the test of time too. Five on five may be generous, but almost any Billy Talent fan would agree. Billy Talent II will make waves, and it deserves to. The only question is: are you ready?