Tuesday, May 17, 2011

17052011

The Appleseed Cast - The End Of The Ring Wars (1998)
 (emotional rock)


I started listening to The Appleseed Cast's production for the second time right from the beginning, The End Of The Ring Wars, where the band's own style hadn't yet developed to its full potential but showed definite promises of a bright future. The late 90s consisted of a strong emo movement and The Appleseed Cast hopped on the band wagon with their debut record and made a name for themselves, breaking through from the general emo bands such as Sunny Day Real Estate. There is no extra material on this disc – just your basic emo mash-up of cracking vocals, smooth percussion lineage and traditional, repetitive guitar riffs with your occasional breakdowns. The emphasis is laid upon the honest vocals of Christopher Crisci and the story of lost love and gaining it back depicted in the songs throughout the album.

Musically the album doesn't strike me as anything clearly above average. I've become too used to emo-labeled bands that even though the Kansas foursome provides excellent, original emo music, I can't get the grip from it nowadays. Yet, I can imagine any high school kid in the late 1990s being all over this album with their headphones over their heads, laying down on their beds in their own rooms, locked up with this album playing in the background. The music is explosive at times and brings you back to the ground with soft melodies at others and there are some exceptionally neat additions to some songs, such as the saxophone of Stars, which I think I accidentally fell in love with.

What truly astounds me about this album is the lyrical mastery behind such emotions. The current emotional bands tend to thrive in bland choruses, non-versatile descriptive words and the excessive use of the words pain and agony. The Appleseed Cast provides none of this. The lyrics bring you back to your youth and you're just lying on the floor, staring at the ceiling an a hot summer night, or is the morning already? The lyrics are poetry of the young emotions. First true love, or which you thought to be true love, the feeling that no one understands you and the harsh losses, which at the time felt like barriers too great to overcome but which you have now forgot.

In my opinion Moment #72 provides every piece of emotion the band has to offer in lyrics. The End Of The Ring Wars might just be the album of my summer. Lonely days full of sunshine, emotions without meanings and the wait for nothing and everything.

Secrets of
curtains love
blinds.
a hideaway
Long hand falls
The moment slows down
and nothing moves
Count the second's passage
Lies concealed your hands
Wear this moment's wretched
finery
This moment's words, this moment's words fade away
The silence says, the silence says more
The secrets fall 
You shout out lies by just standing there
A face of smile
I could not see you,
only my reflection

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