18052011

The Appleseed Cast - Mare Vitalis (2000)
(emotional indie rock / post-rock)  

The Appleseed Cast presents their second piece in their ever-growing puzzle of albums. Mare Vitalis is a clearly cleaner record than the previous The End Of The Ring Wars with its distinctive guitars that race around your front yard like dogs after their favorite ball. Crisci's voice has lost its tears and while still not being note-perfect it brings forth a strong, personal asset to the album. The Appleseed Cast tries to adapt to a new genre everytime they make an album. Whether it's emotional rock, lighter indie rock or post-rock they get stuck on the road of mediocrity. With their frequent adaption they've created a versatile discography but none of the albums define the band's own personality. On Kilgore Trout they sound like the previous themselves, on Mare Mortis they sound like your typical change-of-the-millenium post-rock group and on Santa Maria they sound something like a This Town Needs Guns predecessor. Yet, they seems to lack the elements to fully break through to a concentrated audience.

Reaching ocean
Walked for days
Reaching ocean 

The album isn't a huge step forward from the debut, it's more like a step sideways. The raw emotion is gone and its replaced with mostly soothing melodies of mornings that make you smile and summers that make you cry. Pillar's guitar work seems to fly like free pidgeons and Baruth's widely credited intricate drumming shows throughout this sea-thematized concept album.

The songs are turning into the more and more instrumental direction, which they will achieve in the later production of the band. The lyrics have been simplified from the previous work and consist of only a few meaningful lines of longing, love and loneliness. Love out of reach, love lost and love to be longed for are strongly depicted through various sea-related metaphors where Crisci's simple, yet eloquent way with words strikes you with the trident of Poseidon. The interpretation of the lyrics doesn't require a master's thesis in linguistics - the words crush on you like foam-headed waves on a golden beach.

I always know where I am
by the way the road looks
The sea brings me back to you 

The beauty of the album lies in its simplicity. Throw yourself into the sea of vitality.

.take these words and write them down.