CHIODOS - All’s Well That Ends Well

CHIODOS
All’s Well That Ends Well
Equal Vision Records - 2005
8/10





Flint, Michigan’s Chiodos have put together an impressive collection of sounds in “All’s Well That Ends Well”, as the group strive to give the listener something different than what you might expect from a band that is often holding an At The Gates riff behind their back.

Certain individuals that are into extreme music may tend to pick this one up in the record, browse the titles of the songs and continue looking. For the most part, these songs just don’t read like they are all that extreme.

This is a part of the grace that the band exhibits in their creativity and it is a trait that is just this side of genius, as Chiodos gives you a touch of what you might expect from a band with the aforementioned steely riffs, but this group is so much more diverse than many other bands. You can chalk up much of the group’s inter-song dynamic quality to an excellent engineering job by Marc Hudson of Audiolux Studios.

Craig Owens has the ability to emulate just about any vocal style going, and he interchanges these distinctly differing vocal sounds, often with each change between song parts. Musically, the album runs through varied tempos, stylization and emotion. Following a somber prelude an piano, Chiodos kick into “All Nereids Beware.”

The listener will notice from this introduction to the group’s schizophrenic arrangements that Chiodos not only produces listenable extreme music with great degrees of variation, but they do so with an excellent performance.

Other pieces you’ll definitely want to check out for yourself include the sprawling post-hardcore fusion masterpiece.” One Day All Women Will Become Monsters” and the abstract, ringing “There’s No Penguins In Alaska.”

If you’re scared of emo, growling death vocals and screams of ringing pianos, you may want to steer clear, but it’s likely that Chiodos has enough appeal to reach a wide cross section of listeners.


ERIN FOX © 2006 - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED