Reconciler : "Art For Our Sake"

This Atlanta punk band has a husky sound that takes you back to the late 90s. As organic as you might want your melodic punk to sound, but devoid of any of the pop tendencies that took the genre over during the rise of Myspace. The vocals are sung with command but not as whiskey-soaked as say Chuck Ragan. The backing vocals are marginally more melodic. The title track has a little more of an anthemic hook to it. This is their second album, and it shows that the overall execution and sonic presentation are self-assured. Despite having a little more punch, "Meaningless Resistance" begins to find a uniformity settling in. They break this up on "Effigy" which lets up on some of the tension, as the guitar goes into more of a strum. This brings the dynamic touch the album was beginning to need and is one of the album's strongest songs. 

The vocals are more nuanced and serve a much greater previous on "Hell, Mary". The drums give things more room to breathe which also helps. They begin to veer more toward rock n roll on "38 Regular". This might not be as effective as when a band like the Menzingers tread similar ground, but it's not half bad either. "Illusions" is angrier, but the lyrics feel on the unwieldy side. The lyrics are the weak point of this album to me, they do not feel very personal.  Sure there is a working man motif to them, and I get the fact they are trying to be socially conscious and political it just doesn't connect, but this is largely forgivable. 

"Never Fade Away" finds them stepping on the gas harder. "Hodge" is a step into a more reflective direction, before they stomp on the gain. This is pushed a step further when they break out the acoustic guitars for "Love Song for the End Times". The last finds a familiar palm muted tension over things, as the bass takes a more prominent role.  Overall this shirt punk, wants to feel more working class than what the Atlanta punk scene actually is, which is trust fund suburban kids who move to East Atlanta or Little Five Points, I mean could a real punk even afford to live in Atlanta these days since it became Ya'llywood? This album does not answer that question, but is well done for what it is I'll give it an 8. It drops Febuary 2nd on Smart Punk Records. 

pst13