Album Review

The back cover photo of drummer Mike Raymond with his guitar, rolling his eyes and smiling at the other four tearing past him on their bikes, hell-bent for a good time somewhere, is a good indicator of what you‘ll hear on 10 Good Reasons. One of Ottawa‘s few Warped-Tour veterans, this east-end five-piece know their way around a punchy riff, a catchy chorus - in short, a great song. Heavily influenced by Thursday‘s older material as well as the likes of Beloved and Thrice, VR stand up on their own as solid songwriters and performers, and their debut full-length, in the manner of a damn good album, reveals interesting things with each listen that you didn‘t hear before. Opening track ‘Star‘, besides being lyrically obtuse to the point where I have no idea if singer Curt Jones is super-robotically-intelligent or just making stuff up(I‘m leaning towards the former), is a collection of killer drop-D riffs arranged in a quick tempo that would have some uninformed reviewers labeling VR as a pop-punk band, which they are not - and there‘s a kids‘ chorus involved too, and more on that later on. ‘Loyalist‘ is where the Thursday references start; the song‘s opening riff sounds like something from Full Collapse, but Viscera‘s aren‘t just ripping someone off, they‘re building on what‘s been laid down. As a vocalist Jones is on par with Geoff Rickley, and where some of Thursday‘s newer material bores me, these guys certainly do not. Dancing guitars and burbling bass ride atop terrific drumming from Raymond, and the production on 10 Good Reasons is as good as it gets for an independent band making their way up.

Writing this, it occurs to me that there‘s not a weak track on this record. Usually I can find at least one or two songs on an album I really like that I can point to and say, "Yeah, they kinda dropped the ball here," but that isn‘t happening. ‘Ghettoblast‘ is more hardcore-influenced, melody-based awesomeness, all twirling guitar leads and thumping rhythms and crunching riffs borrowed straight from some of NYHC‘s finest - and is that a credible falsetto I hear there? I believe it is! And before one starts thinking, "It‘s all gonna sound the same from here on," fourth track ‘Mon Cheri‘ is an acoustic ditty devoid of any punk-rock ruckus and full of Jones‘ soaring tenor before going full-on electric a couple minutes in(man, these guys know how to write guitar leads!). Like the best of the emo/hardcore breed that‘s sprouted up this century, VR have mastered the combination of heavy and melodic elements to very pleasing results - and there‘s no unnecessary screaming, which earns huge points with me(I see you, Senses Fail). Fifth track ‘About Blank‘ is an album highlight, with a blazing central riff reminiscent of the best of Helmet‘s heyday(though Helmet never sounded this peppy). This song kills, and live it‘s even better, as this writer can attest, and it‘s followed by ‘Me Reporting Missing‘, which reminds me of Stavesacre‘s ‘Acquiese‘ in a weird way. Lyricist Jones is verbose to the point where phrases have to be spit out and crammed in to fit within the songs‘ structures at times, but that doesn‘t really detract from the listening pleasure overall.

Melancholy piano ballad ‘From A Moving Train‘ displays VR‘s quieter side; I normally cringe when a band of this type attempts to slow things down because the results more often than not are a trainwreck(no pun intended), but these guys are versatile enough to try different things without grinding the entire album to a halt. A couple more solid cuts comprise the rest of the album before closer ‘11:11‘ ends things with the return of the childrens‘ choir "fa-la-la"ing to a feedback-drenched close. This debut album shows poise that a lot of bands don‘t find on their third and fourth records, making me excited for what‘s to come.

- Mike Postma

Viscera‘s Recital online

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