Album review: The Amity Affliction – Severed Ties

The Amity Affliction are Australia’s entry to the crowded dual-vocal post-hardcore market; Severed Ties was initially released in 2008 in their native land, but earned itself a UK release to coincide with their invasion of this septic isle this winter. There’s nothing particularly new or fresh about it, but The Amity Affliction seem to have the increasingly rare knack of balancing the heaviness with pop hooks, simultaneously avoiding Epitaph Cheddar Syndrome and that unlistenable brutality that marks the more extreme end of the scene.

As their name suggests, The Amity Affliction have a serious jones for psycho-horror and true crime stories, which comes through in their lyrical content. Juxtaposed with their accessible and catchy sound, it’s an unusual combination… but not an unwelcome one, to be honest. I’m dead bored of earnest young men with daft haircuts wailing about their terrible angst, and The Amity Affliction avoid the problem by stealing stories from popular culture. Granted, those stories seem to be rooted firmly in slasher/teen-terror movies (another genre that assertively flicks my ennui switch), but for some reason it’s much easier for me to ignore the words and concentrate on the sound with this sort of material. The clean vocals aren’t layered with autotune and chorus, the gritty ones are varied and well-balanced, and the interplay between the two works well with the tunes beneath.

And those tunes? Well, they lack the staccato sharpness and glistening polish of The Amity Affliction’s competitors, but that’s actually a refreshing change, for these ears at least. The guitars are thick and bass-heavy, the keyboard patches blend and support rather than riding roughshod over the top, and the drumming is assertive without any intrusive virtuosity or gimmicks. The tunes have melodies, dynamics, memorable chorus hooks… in other words, Severed Ties is a solid pop album, devoid of the desperate and cloying sentiment of more radio-friendly “hardcore” bands.

Regular readers will be well aware that I’ve grown very tired of the increasingly ill-defined post-hardcore sound, and hence it should be taken as something of a recommendation that I didn’t struggle to make myself listen to Severed Ties a second time. In fact, I was quite happy to wind it back to the start right away – it’s catchy, smart enough to engage the brain but wise enough not to overplay the seriousness. I had to skip the cover of “Love Is A Battlefield”, though – it sounds exactly like you’d expect, and ironic eighties covers are another entry on the list of “stuff that has bored the crap out of me in the noughties”. I can’t see myself becoming a die-hard fan of The Amity Affliction, but they’re one of the few acts of their ilk that I wouldn’t mind seeing live – they sound like they know how to set a crowd alight, and that’s something that transcends genre preferences. Murphy’s Law means that I’ve missed my chance this time round, but I’d say there’s a good chance that The Amity Affliction will be back over here again in the future – so keep your ears to the ground.