arg. don’t you hate it when heroes from your youth aren’t as appealing as they once were? i actually die a little inside when i have to type ASHES dIVIDE (that typeface is something that billy howerdel insisted on. gross.). i die a little more when i listen to this record. i can’t believe how boring it sounds. it’s full of songs like “too late” which don’t challenge the listener in any way with their cushy, cliché, bleeding-heart lyrics and instrumentals that further draw from a cure-meets-ozzy-osbourne pallett (that also served as source-material for a perfect circle, but source-material that they openly mocked themselves for. here, billy’s taking it far too seriously). it’s even more cringe-worthy of a listen when one compares keep telling myself it’s alright to any of APC’s output. “enemies,” the most memorable song from the record, is also the song that sounds closest to howerdel’s work with maynard. howerdel’s singing is intense, the guitars and bass are relentless, and josh freese’s drumming ignites the song with a life and fervor not present on any of the others.
sure, you could argue that it’s unfair to compare this record to howerdel’s previous band’s efforts, but this project begs for comparison to APC because of the people involved. names like danny lohner, josh freese, paz lenchantin and even maynard’s son devo, pop up all over the liner notes, even though howerdel claims to want to distance ASHES dIVIDE from what he’s done before. keep telling myself it’s alright is glaring evidence to the contrary. billy howerdel needs to find a new bag of tricks in order to make his music and songwriting distinct and unique to himself.
Filed under: Album Review , 2008, ASHES dIVIDE, billy howerdel, danny lohner, josh freese, Keep Telling Myself It's Alright, maynard james keenan, paz lenchantin
