Album review: Greeley Estates – Go West Young Man, Let The Evil Go East

Far from being some new and contentious brown-land housing development at the edge of your town, Greeley Estates are in fact a post-hardcore screamo band from Arizona, and Go West Young Man, Let The Evil Go East is their third album.

I’m starting to get nervous when albums labelled as post-hardcore turn up; much like metalcore, it’s a genre tag that’s become so loose as to be practically useless, covering everything from watery pop-punk to tuneless screeching and middle-class angst. To my relief, Greeley Estates have managed to stretch the definition to a considerable degree. Go West Young Man, Let The Evil Go East features a number of songs that break free of their formula chains, either by switching in styles and ideas from other scenes, or by throwing a proper musical curveball at the listener.

Go West Young Man, Let The Evil Go East may contain more than a hint of pretension, though, as the songs have titles as lengthy and bombastic as the album itself. “Desperate Times Call For Desperate Measures”; “Mother Nature Is A Terrorist”; “I’ll Have To Warn You, This Won’t Be Quick” … either they have ideas above their station, or Greeley Estates are heavy on the irony. I can’t be sure; I’m finding harder to tell the difference as the years go by.

Greeley Estates‘ vocalist Ryan Zimmerman has a worthy range of styles, covering lots of ground between a sort of strangled little-kid-lost theatrics and the throaty frantic tortured howls of screamo. Meanwhile, Go West Young Man, Let The Evil Go East is propelled by double-kick drumming with plenty of feel, dynamic guitar work that’s strong without being overpowering or excessively technical, and sprawling song structures that use the studio desk as an extra instrument in its own right.

I can’t understate how useful a little subtle studio trickery is in livening up Greeley Estates‘ material. Tracks which might otherwise have been business-as-usual are brought to life with some unusual flavourings, carefully applied. Album opener “Blue Morning” features a ragged playground shout-along chorus, a spectacular simple-but-tense riff in “Go West Young Man” gives way to two brief bars of Southern Baptist gospel choir, and “Desperate Times Call For Desperate Measures” has a section that sounds like techno before morphing into an old-school chugga-chugga hardcore beatdown.

Go West Young Man, Let The Evil Go East also benefits hugely from Greeley Estates looking beyond the borders of post-hardcore for compositional embellishment and new ideas, stealing some metalcore guitar licks for “If I Could Be Frank, You’re Ugly” and an old-school speed-metal solo for “Mother Nature Is A Terrorist”. There are a few missed shots, though – like the radiemo postures of “There’s Something Wrong With The World Today”, a song as structurally obvious and clichéd as its title.

Greeley Estates have made a little crack in the mould, and not a moment too soon. Go West Young Man, Let The Evil Go East isn’t going to be the album that breaks post-hardcore into the mainstream, but it certainly has the potential to convince a more cynical listener that there’s a few new ideas left to mine from the old coalface.