Strata – Presents The End Of The World

Strata Presents The End Of The World shows why we shouldn’t jump to conclusions about CDs, or anything for that matter.

After hearing their new single, Stay Young, I was excited to hear Presents The End Of The World. I grabbed a copy of the CD and threw it in almost immediately. I listened to it, and wow, was I disappointed. I felt the record was bland, as if they were desperately trying for some sort of grandiose sound but falling hard. The first half of the CD was incredibly boring and it only kicked into gear once Stay Young started playing. However, even that momentum crashed and burnt as Strata threw in two instrumentals in the final five songs of the CD. I couldn’t understand what had gone wrong and was ready to write a review where I would completely and utterly tear into the record.

The thing was though, I didn’t have time. It was finals, I bought an xbox, I was busy. So instead of writing the review after listening to the CD only once or twice, I had to wait. During that period of waiting I played the CD many more times and lo and behold Presents The End Of The World started to grow on me; and while I still find those two instrumentals infuriating, the rest of the CD isn’t all that bad.

The fact that they’re still going for a grandiose sound is still clearly evident, but it starts to grow on you the more you listen. You start hearing a vivid Dredg influence in the atmospheric sound through the angular guitar and floating vocal harmonies. The songs become captivating and refreshing as they find a middle ground between radio rock and progressive rock – leaving more on the latter than the former. Hot/Cold [Darling, Don’t] has a sense of hopefulness embedded through the soaring vocals and ambient guitars while Poughkeepsie, NY is vastly different. Still keeping an airy vibe to it, the song is gloomy and dark with Eric Victorino’s vocals much lower and more controlled as he tells the story of sharing a beer with the devil in Poughkeepsie. It also sees the band introducting more sythn elements to their style. Stay Youngand Love Is Life are able to keep the momentum running with the same thing that originally attracted me to the release: depressed vocals looking for a way out with sparse backdrop that grows in intensity as the songs progresses before it explodes with passion.

They only truly deviate from the atmospheric rock style on a few tracks. Cocaine[We’re All Going To Hell] features a much heavier electronica and dance vibe built on a reggae style bass line, clapping hands, and piano instead and Eric Victorino’s unique vocals are delivered in a much faster fashion than the rest of the album. But it works and helps the chorus become the catchiest one on the record. On the closing piano ballad, Daylight In The City, Strata sounds more like Relient K than Dredg which throws you through a loop a bit but it soon comes around to catch you again.

The record is far from perfect but has definitely grown on me the past week and a half. It’s gone from being a CD I was ready to throw away and never listen to again to a CD that will probably pop up from time to time. It takes sometime to grow on you, but fans of Dredg will definitely like the record once they sit through it a few times.