Alexisonfire

I submitted Watch Out! so of COURSE I'd give this a 5/5 hell yeah

Haven't these guys already had an album in the user list? Oh god this is "myspace-core" if ever there was such a thing lol. I dunno, not really my thing. It's just a bit too amateur - the music doesn't do much, the clean singing/trade-off vocals are weak, etc. Actually, weak is the overall word here. An album this loud and heavy should at least be POWERFUL, but this isn't at all. 2/5.

Mostly with (post-)hardcore, I like the music, and not the screaming vocals. This one is no exception. But the music isn't that great on this one too. So not a high score for Alexisonfire

Woof these guys are sure mad about something

On repeat: There are so many really great post-hardcore and emo albums and this is not one of them. I like this one better than "Watch Out!", but still I do not like it that much. The spoken words parts are interesting though, they should do this more often (I get a Slint feeling). I'm in a happy state, so I'll give it 3 stars.

I did not like their album Watch Out! Not looking forward to this one… and my hesitation was merited. Not for me.

I was a City and Colour kid first. Saw him live and he did an Alexisonfire set in the middle of the show. It blew my mind. It wasn't really my cup of tea, but I liked the versatility Dallas had. It's only grown on me over the years. Nowadays I think I prefer Alexisonfire to City and Colour!

Why does Ms Onfire have a knife? She's clearly gone off the tracks a bit. Talking of tracks - I'm listening to this via the Tidal app, but I'd actually started it off on the web player first, so for the first two tracks I was accidentally listening to it twice concurrently, just time-drifted by about 35 seconds. For most music, that would be a hideous cacophony. On this record, it didn't actually make all that much difference. So much so that I didn't notice until the second track finished, leaving its 35 second time-shifted version the only bit playing for a while. What can I say about Alexis, other than that I don't really enjoy her style of music? I hope she doesn't stab me up. The spoken word bits seem to be based heavily on Air's "The Virgin Suicides" - and that's fine. The screamy stuff isn't half tiring, though. I'm afraid that overall this was another DNF. It has set out its stall in the first few tracks and I can see no benefit to subjecting myself to more if it, expecting neither a change in the music or in my reaction to it.

Pretty damn good, but I'm already a fan

Loved alexis when I was 16, I prefer watch out to their debut though.

I'm pretty sure we didn't need two Alexisonfire albums on the user list, but I do prefer this one to Watch Out! from a coupla weeks ago. It's angrier, somehow, but the guitar work is better throughout and they do a better job of cutting through the wall of angsty noise and driving some good melodies; A Dagger Through..., Polaroids of Polar Bears, Waterings are all good blocked together through the middle, it's all done in 40 mins or so and blasts home with Pulmonary Archery which is evocative of some of the best screamo from this era. Watch Out! got a low 4 so on the entirely arbitrary scale we work on this is a middling 4.

For me, not a classic by AOF, but excited to see it anyway. This gave George the spotlight rather than a balance with Dallas.

I never knew they were Canadian! An absolutely rock solid emo album, though that screamer sounds like he is in PAIN.

This is the type of thing I enjoyed a lot, but nowadays sounds a bit outdated. Still gold, but not enough for a 5-star rating.

Rating: 6/10 Best songs: Polaroids of polar bears

Metal emo

Nice bit of screamo to accompany my lunch

Never thrilled to see Screamo on the genre list. I just don't like the vocal style. At times this does some interesting things blending in clean vocals, though the spoken word bits did nothing for me. The music is fast, competent, nothing much new here.

The classic shitty Midwest Emo vocals were to be expected, but the guitar work here was interesting enough to keep me tuned in the entire LP. Reminded me at points of Mars Volta with some pop-punk flair, which was a surprisingly workable combo.

Why did all early 00s emo bands seem to have one singer from a boy and, and the other from a mine in Middle Earth?

Default preset screamo. Not great, not terrible. Their later albums are more interesting from what I remember. 3/5.

Pretty good for 2002 emo

God this brings back high school. I remember hearing this band back in like 2003ish and disliking the music. But it makes sense why it was popular amongst the high schoolers. It's the perfect emo-My Space era music. Listening to it now 2 decades later, I can't really connect with it. I imagine if you really liked it back then it means a lot but to me it just doesn't work. My personal rating: 3/5 My rating relative to the list: 3/5 Should this have been included on the original list? No.

two singers early emo

Better than the other Alexisonfire album on here, there’s better music in this style etc etc. I enjoyed this one

Halfway between Slipknot and At The Drive-In. The screaming man got a bit tiring after a while, it's like having a toddler on your record.

Not nearly as good as their later album Crisis. This is more of the emo screamo and less of Dallas green on the melodies. Crisis had a really solid mix of those that made the album great. This album falls short of that and it’s stuck in the early 2000s emo scene that doesn’t really age well. 5.5/10

You know what, musically this was not bad at all really. The vocals just kill it for me though. The whole clean/unclean thing is beyond me. It's like taking a piss on a well manicured lawn. Some people might think I mean that in a good way, but I don't.

Stupid music, though I love Dallas Green's City and Colour project.

I was giving scream-o rock a somewhat generous pass on the first alexisonfire suggestion, but what we didn't need was a second album on this list. It is way out of balance and is far more annoying than it is engaging.

Musically, I can get behind this—up to a point. But then the vocals kick in, and suddenly it’s less rock anthem and more existential meltdown. There’s rage, sure, but it lands somewhere between ‘revolutionary angst’ and ‘toddler denied a second cookie.’ What exactly is his problem? And more importantly, why is he yelling it at me?

I'm glad Alex is on fire.

Not a fan of the genre and the constant screamo is a complete no-no for me. Music seems competent though. Sorry.

I like the music itself but why bother with the vocal noise? It's just awful. It saves itself from a One star but the stupid voice is, well.....err...stupid.

A bit too shouty for me. I don’t understand this type of music but lots of people do so what does my opinion matter?

Alexisonfire’s second album came up a few weeks ago, and I explained then that I just never really got into them at the time but always thought they were fine (I also misattributed the screamed vocals to their guitarist and backing vocalist Wade McNeil rather than the actual lead George Pettit - oops) Anyway their debut has a lot of the same good things as it’s follow-up - the interplay between those screamed and clean vocals is quite fun, and there’s a lot of inventive riffs on this record - but it does also feel sloppier, both from a performance standpoint and a songwriting one. There’s often a quite linear approach to the songwriting with no cohesion between the sections and no strong hooks (either vocal or instrumental) to return to, which just results in the end product feeling disjointed and unfulfilling

Somehow the overall effect is less than the sum of its parts.

They’re 2 for 2 in good album covers, and 0 for 2 on making music I like

"The incessant screaming makes the music deep and visceral." Sure, take your two stars and keep telling yourself that.

It was all fine until the vocals started.

Alexisonfire’s debut is all raw energy and youthful ambition, but it sounds like a band still figuring things out. The screamed vocals hit harder than the clean ones, which often feel out of tune and undercut the songs. The production is muddy, and while there’s plenty of intensity, there aren’t many standout tracks that stay with you. Historically interesting as the start of a major Canadian post-hardcore band, but musically it feels more like a demo with a band searching direction than an essential album.

Never been a big fan of screamo. I can appreciate the genre, but I miss the appeal.

Once again, I just can't with this band. Every time I listen to one of their albums hoping it'll be different even though deep down I know it'll be the same screamo as always.

Screamo, emo, post-hardcore. Pero qué mierda... Un 1.

👎🏻

👏🤣 There’s no way I’m listening to two albums by these guys!

Yeah, I'm all for including post hardcore in the list -- a genre indeed done dirty by Dimery and co.. But why oh why would you consider this debut clearly produced on a budget (gosh, that HORRID drum sound!)? This waste of a slot IMHO is all the more maddening when the essential At The Drive-In albums -- either also produced on a budget (*In Casino Out*), or not (*Relationship Of Command*) -- are absent from the book. "Mall bands" is a term I've sometimes found online to describe that early and mid-noughts wave of post-hardcore Alexisonfire is arguably a part of. And given the cheap results as listened to here, this derogatory labelling seems just right for them. At least follow-up LP *Watch Out* (also mentioned in the users' list) is properly produced and more convincing dynamics-wise. And the other huge difference between the two albums are the vocals. In *Watch Out*, the performance of the two vocalists and the way they balance out growled and clean sung parts sounds great, whereas the performance of both is borderline ridiculous in that eponymous debut. Guess they just needed to get better at this, and also write less unnecessary convoluted compositions so that said vocal performances don't sound like an afterthought. The sung parts are also just more pleasant and memorable harmonically speaking in *Watch Out*. Whereas they are quite flat here. I will therefore probably include *Watch Out* in my "high rated albums". And this debut will also pop up in my stinkers gallery. A quick way to let everyone know my "controversial" mileage on this band. 1/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums. 6/10 for more general purposes (5 + 1). Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 32 Albums from the users list I *might* select for mine later on: 42 Albums from the users list I won't select for mine: 79 (including this one) --- Émile, je sais, ça fait un bout de temps que je te promets des nouveaux bouts de réponse (as-tu vu les derniers au dessus ?), mais je suis en vacances à la mer, et les journées sont courtes. Ça fait du bien de moins faire d'écrans, ha ha. Aussi fun que cette petite expérimentation sur le générateur a été, on pourrait aussi ptet simplement se contacter via les réseaux sociaux ou Messenger ? Dis-moi ce que tu en penses...

Not getting this lot at all. The dual vocals of the one dude doing tired and soaring alt vocals and the screaming Freddy Krueger metal effect does not remotely work. Do like the opening few moments of opener with gloriously chming guitars. Cannot abide.

Just fuck no. Outrageously boring and shit and annoying

I never understand the screaming. Ever. Goddamn stupid shame because the music is pretty good, but the absurdity of the screaming absolutely kills and wastes any aspect of this or any music. 2/10 1 star.

My body is on fire (from listening to one song) jesus christ this is horrible.

trash

Horrible