ALEXISONFIRE – OLD CROWS/YOUNG CARDINALS

Old Crows/Young Cardinals is so heavy it feels like someone is punching you in the head (Friday evening in the Cross, anyone?), and simultaneously riff-ier and more melodic than their celebrated sophomore Crisis. But since every hardcore band that hits the big time, every album, even, dilutes the pool of anger and urgency that the movement was founded upon, the question must be asked: what does yet another record of unintelligible screaming, machine-gun drum fills and power-chords really mean? Thankfully, Alexisonfire’s commitment to anarchism, blistering energy and the political implications of their dramatic, existential terror gives this album the weight that so much other “heavy” music seems to lack.  Accept Crime, the stand-out moment of the album, channels something like the energy of Black Flag into an anarchistic plaint against something like the Catholic state (“We will be free to use our bodies as we please / There’s no police between two beating hearts!”). It’s a shame that, for all the great riffs and “melodies” (I use the term advisedly), the album feels a bit repetitive by the close – their trademark singing/screaming tag-team wears a little thin on the heavy stuff, and the slow songs are pretty forgettable. But Old Crows/Young Cardinals has got a real sense of urgency and a creative touch  heads above the rest of the mindless post-screamo, nu-metal rubbish that passes for hardcore nowadays.

***1/2