They And The Children – Home

They And The Children’s song “Invisible” from their Home album is the perfect track for a standalone 7”.  The nearly nine-minute runtime oscillates expertly between cool dark rhythm, crushing hardcore, and a fractured, narrative style structure that shatters and consolidates with keen foresight.  It plays out like System Of A Down meets Hellmouth meets Hatebreed meets a conspiracy theorist’s and social activists ranting speeches (I’ve never been as genuinely moved by a call for unity like in the mid-way moments).  Seamless seems an appropriate descriptor, and any band looking for an example of how to frame an album as a collective work would best takes detailed notes.

Unfortunately I can’t say as much for the other seven accompanying tracks.  The remainder of the track list collides with equivalent fervor and a tendency to curtail the album’s guitars to a coarse range.  The result leads to a collection of tracks that could be interpreted individually with standalone splendor, but instead blend into repetitious convention.  What sounds alive and invigorating on opener “Mechanical” feels tired and testing by the time “Exploding Inevitable” surfaces a few tracks later.  Furthering the trend, the final few tracks, “Creatures Who Stopped Living,” Exit Strategy,” and “Stockholm” blend into one big shouty mass.  Nine-minute closer “Gift” tries capturing “Invisible’s” episodic brilliance, but misguidedly continues saturating these heavy sounds, serving as a nail in the coffin rather than the much-needed second wind.

In the end, “Invisible” is a diamond in the rough amongst Home’s otherwise lackluster cast.  Either They And The Children got lucky or know what they’re doing under the right circumstances.  While the sheer volume of misses might imply otherwise, I’d like to think that perhaps no one has ever pointed out They And The Children’s obvious strengths, and that if the band toned down their aggression (not to be confused with scaling back passion) they could find repeat success.  But as it stands now, Home is just a situation best experienced with very targeted cherry picking.