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ARMED FOR APOCALYPSE “The Earth Is Breathing Beneath Me”
ARMED FOR APOCALYPSE “The Earth Is Breathing Beneath Me”
By Dr. Abner Mality
ARMED FOR APOCALYPSE have been toughing it out in the trenches for a long time now. I remember seeing them 20 years ago at a bar that’s been closed for almost that long. They were playing that knuckle-dragging kind of thuggish hardcore before a lot of other bands caught on to it and they’re still at it today.
“The Earth Is Breathing Beneath Me” is not a perfect or “knocked out of the park” album, but it sees AFA trying hard to get there. A lot of it is very familiar, yet they have stepped out of their zone on a few tracks here and deserve some credit for that. One thing they’ve always been and that is HEAVY. They combine the simplicity of HATEBREED’S beatdown riffing with a kind of thick CROWBAR groove and a touch of THE ACACIA STRAIN’s noisy crush. The drumming is brutal, the production is clear but heavy as a battleship and the vocals are tough guy bellowing. Songs like the opening “Drown” and “Ashes Of The Night” are the same thing AFA has been doing since I saw them at Bar 5.
What really gives this album its kick are the shorter, faster cuts like “Spellbound”, “Lost Without A Light” and especially “Keep Up Appearances”. These tunes just seem meaner and they cut right to the bone. Not gonna lie, “Keep Up Appearances” scores a devastating hit with the riff of the year so far at about 1:30 or so. You will know it when you hear it. I just think the faster and shorter tunes hit harder. “Lurk” starts with opening riffs that almost sound like black metal and that is new territory for ARMED FOR APOCALYPSE.
They really change things up on the last two songs. The charmingly titled “Bathed In A Tepid Pool of My Own Filth” is slow, crawling horror right up there with PRIMITIVE MAN or the most doomy side of THE ACACIA STRAIN. It’s a grueling listen and more new territory for the band. The same can be said for the closing title track, which is almost post-metal with its hazy guitar textures and relaxed pacing. I can’t say this song makes me do backflips, but again, it’s something different and shows a willingness to expand.
This winds up being a solid album that combines tried and true AFA thugcore with some new tricks. They are not entirely resigned to doing the same thing over and over.
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