STRAIGHT LINE STITCH

When Skies Wash Ashore

Koch/Raging Nation

7.5 / 10

Track listing:

01. Never see the Day
02. Promise Me
03. Taste of Ashes
04. Eucharist
05. Black Veil
06. Adult Cinema
07. What You Can do to Me
08. Seneca Tragedy
09. World Made Flesh
10. Yesterday's Gone

Those of you with no tolerance for clean singing and catchy melodies in modern metal are advised to steer clear of STRAIGHT LINE STITCH's "When Skies Wash Ashore". Everyone else should find the deft balance of metalcore aggression and scintillating melodies, featuring the sweet croon and savage growl of the lovely Alexis Brown, to add up to one of the better efforts within the commercially viable realm of modern metal. Be forewarned, your "brootal street cred" may be damaged by professing a love for "When Skies Wash Ashore".

The last few years it seems that for every solid commercial metal outing that combines aggression with melody and clean singing, there are 10 mundane pieces of rubbish. "When Skies Wash Ashore" falls in the former category and not because it is some new fangled form of metal or devoid of a predictable formula. It's just that the formula works pretty darn well and the band manages to rock the fuck out and leave you humming the choruses. The metalcore parts hit hard and the melodic sections soar high above the clouds, not unlike the work of IN THIS MOMENT.

Though the growl 'n' croon formula has been done to death, STRAIGHT LINE STITCH manages to keep things fresh with songwriting that varies from track to track, regardless of the fact that you know the big, clean chorus is heading your way. And when it does, Brown belts out some seriously infectious patterns; the lady can flat-out sing her ass off, making the hooks on songs such as "Taste of Ashes" (featuring HATEBREED's Jamey Jasta),"Eucharist", and "Black Veil" that much bigger. Special attention should be paid to "What You Can Do To Me" for its righteous groove and vocal pattern on the chorus. The album closes with a lilting acoustic ballad called "Yesterday's Gone", not to be confused with LYNYRD SKYNYRD's "Tuesday's Gone", although I suppose yesterday could be Tuesday.

"When Skies Wash Ashore" is not an album for the ages and won't appeal to those with a distaste for commercial metal. It is, however, one that kicks a respectable amount of ass and leaves those grand choruses bouncing around the inside of your skull.

Author:

Prev More Reviews Next

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).