Alaska’s 36 Crazyfists have carved themselves a reputation as uncompromising innovators, drawing on the many threads of heavy music to weave a tapestry that is theirs alone. The Tide And Its Takers promises to cement that reputation firmly in place.
Calling The Tide And Its Takers a concept album would be as lazy as calling its creators a metalcore band, although there is an element of truth in both statements. 36 Crazyfists are arguably one of the pioneers of the sound that became metalcore, but the material they’re producing now is about as far from the generic clichés of the scene followers as you could get. Sure, there’s hardcore aggression and rhythmic power, and there’s vocals, riffs and lead lines that draw on the metal traditions. But the whole is much greater than the sum of its parts.
There’s a definite hint of the progressive songwriting approach running right through The Tide And Its Takers – not just in the intricate architecture of the song structures, but in the sense of theme. That haunting sleeve art suggests the deadly power of the natural world to reach out and crush us, and 36 Crazyfists clearly have a more fatalist acceptance of mortality than a lot of bands display, possibly due to the death of their original bassist in a car accident.
The other theme is more human; many of the songs on The Tide And Its Takers deal with people caught up in events that, while man-made, are no more amenable to control than the elements themselves. But there’s no moping, no hardcore tough-guy bluster; this is the sound of a band who believe that when life pushes against you, you just have to keep on struggling. Life is its own goal, no matter what the obstacles.
At least, that’s how it comes across to me; perhaps I have it all wrong. Even so, The Tide And Its Takers has a refreshing musical diversity that stands it well aside from the metalcore pack. There’s plenty of the angular riffs and tight-as-fuck rhythmic intensity that you expect from this end of the musical spectrum, but 36 Crazyfists bring unusual authenticity to their material by spicing it with more than the standard condiments.
Opening track “The All Night Lights”, for example, is a maelstrom of heaviness that hides a momentary placid eye in its tornado of sound, and “Vast and Vague” lives up to its name by balancing almost ludicrous blastbeat bludgeon alongside occasional fragments of narcoleptic drift and amnesiac yearning.
Elsewhere, “Clear The Coast” sees 36 Crazyfists effortlessly straddling post-hardcore and metal like a combat-happy titan, fists clenched to pummel all opponents, and the album closes with title-track “The Tide And Its Takers”, a ballad that makes “Nothing Else Matters” look like a piece of GCSE poetry coursework, understated and haunting to the final fading note of fingerpicked acoustic guitar.
But the tracks that sealed the deal for me were the pair at the central pivot point of The Tide And Its Takers. The gentle intro of “Waiting On A War” leads into a tune that can only be described as huge, powered by latent aggression and focused on the narrative of a soldier who, as the title suggests, is waiting to be sent to fight. It segues into “Only A Year Or So …”, which is almost progressive in form and decorated with overdubbed monologues exchanged between the soldier’s wife and the soldier himself.
It’s one of the most uncritical and balanced overviews of the true human impact of modern war I’ve heard in a long time; 36 Crazyfists deploy no chest-beating bravado, no self-righteous criticism, just genuine storytelling – a sense of honest narrative that is echoingly absent from much heavy music today.
The Tide And Its Takers is an emotional rollercoaster, then – or maybe a journey on a sea-swept ship like the one in the cover art, with 36 Crazyfists steering you precariously through the best and worst that the elements can fling at you. Hell, think of your own metaphor, it won’t be hard – there’s masses more intelligence in this album than we’ve come to expect from metalcore bands, and you’ll not be short of things to say once you’ve heard it.
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Tags: 36 Crazyfists, metal, metalcore, post-hardcore, The Tide And Its Takers
