Punknews.orgPunknews.org Logo
Review Navigator

BackForward

Features

 

Contests

 


Reviews



The Assistant

We'll Make the Roads By Walking
2003
Alone

The Assistant - We'll Make the Roads By Walking (Cover Artwork)


Review by: Jesse
See others by this writer

[staff]



Only registered users
can post comments

Print this Review Send this Review to a Friend
Alone Records (Logo)

Published on September 19th 2003

I have to say, as soon as I read the song titles of this band, I was expecting the worst. With such killers as "be nice to me, i had a ruff day," and "too bad spiderman doesn't exist becasue there really is a green goblin," I was sure this band was bound for suckdom. But as, this review might tell you, I was duly impressed.

Aside from having crappy song titles, I noticed that the lyrics all had full page explanations for each one. I thought this silly, but Scott Punknews assured me that it was perfectly normal for a posicore band. Well I was shocked. I had never heard of posicore before! If you haven't figured it out, posi is short for positive, as in emo=emotional. What I also noticed as I was reading that lyrics, was that they weren't half bad. All songs had a positive image, and were decently written with a hopeful attitude.

Then came the test. Even if a band has decent lyrics, the music itself might be the shittiest thing ever written. But I was blown away. Not metaphorically as in them being the best I'd ever heard, but physically blown from the speakers. This is one of the hardest hitting bands I have heard in awhile, and I was amazed at how not suckey it was. But I wasn't sold until I heard track #3, of the spiderman title. It breaks down into a really good hardcore riff for the last 2 minutes of the song, not to mention the classic metal riff openers.

And now onto what could use some work for this album. Number one, the production. It seems a bit grainy at times and muddy at others. This CD would definately deserve a better score if the production was better. Next, I think that some times the songs get a bit repetitive, as they average about seven minutes long. This sometimes goes beyond the point of good song writing and hits levels of being mundane.

All in all, I think this is a solid album, especially for posicore fans. And altough I would never buy it for myself, I think it deserves some checking out just in case you might totally dig it.






Please login or register to post comments.
What are the benefits of having a Punknews.org account?
  • Share your opinion by posting comments on the stories that interest you
  • Rate music and bands and help shape the weekly top ten
  • Let Punknews.org use your ratings to help you find bands and albums you might like
  • Customize features on the site to get the news the way you want.

    Posted by RichieDaggersCrime on 2008-04-19 18:52:48

    Complaining about the production on a punk rock album is like... well, I can't think of anything, but it's dumb.

    Posted by Yellowtrash on 2003-09-23 09:33:15
    My Score:

    How about post-post hardcore? HAHA

    Posted by Anonymous on Monday, September 22, 2003 at 12:54 PM (EDT)
    My Score:

    screamo does not equal sad or depressing you idiots, the assistant is a screamo band

    Posted by Anonymous on Monday, September 22, 2003 at 12:46 PM (EDT)
    My Score:

    They're still not posicore. Listen to any of their songs and FEEL THAT SHIT, I mean seriously FEEL THAT SHIT, and you know what I mean. There IS such a thing as good sadness, nah mean

    Posted by musical-monkey on 2003-09-21 21:31:31
    My Score:

    They just played their last show yesterday.

    Posted by CallingLondon on 2003-09-21 16:54:10
    My Score:

    posicore? that's a joke, right?

    Posted by Jesse on 2003-09-21 12:18:06
    My Score:

    Please, before you make an ass of yourself, pay attention to the lyrics and how the band categorizes ITSELF. None of the songs are sad or even remotely have a hint of depressing emo-ness to them.

    Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, September 21, 2003 at 11:17 AM (EDT)
    My Score:

    Bad review...posicore? This is a goddamn screamo band. SCREAMO BAND. And positive, maybe, but I'd say "hurt" or "sad" first.

    Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, September 20, 2003 at 11:27 PM (EDT)
    My Score:

    I've been a fan of the Assistant since the Forstella Ford split 7" and this, their final album, blew me away but I'm not sure if I enjoy it more than their last LP...check them out sometime.

    Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, September 20, 2003 at 9:08 PM (EDT)
    My Score:

    east coast time, they probably just finished playing their last show a couple hours ago.

    Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, September 20, 2003 at 7:03 PM (EDT)
    My Score:

    i really hope they didn't.

    Posted by musical-monkey on 2003-09-20 14:55:42
    My Score:

    Didn't they just play their last show recently?

    Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, September 20, 2003 at 12:57 PM (EDT)
    My Score:

    Not a bad album, too bad my vinyl released by Scene Police is sort of messed up.

    Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, September 20, 2003 at 4:23 AM (EDT)
    My Score:

    i love this band. this album wasnt quite as good as their other releases but it was still amazing.

    and it seems like this review was done by someone who really shouldn't have been given this record to review.

    Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, September 20, 2003 at 1:59 AM (EDT)
    My Score:

    this is a good band.

    Posted by FortyMinutesWest on 2003-09-19 19:05:01
    My Score:

    Last Will Be First=amazing

    Posted by Anonymous on Friday, September 19, 2003 at 3:31 PM (EDT)
    My Score:

    i love the assistant so much.
    the last will be the first are great also. indeed.

    -greyicewater

    Posted by inagreendase on 2003-09-19 13:19:30
    My Score:

    What are you talking about? Those song titles are awesome. Pretty good review tho...

    Posted by Jesse on 2003-09-19 12:09:30
    My Score:

    The female vocals on this album are not as descript as they could be, and involve more female screaming, but sometimes they stand out quite well.

    Posted by Anonymous on Friday, September 19, 2003 at 12:07 PM (EDT)
    My Score:

    is there a lot of screaming vocals and/or female vocals like their first cd? how about piano?

    Posted by FortyMinutesWest on 2003-09-19 11:59:16
    My Score:

    It's only posicore in terms of lyrics, good band though.

    Posted by Anonymous on Friday, September 19, 2003 at 11:57 AM (EDT)
    My Score:

    yeah, this isn't really posicore in the traditional sense of the term.

    this is more like older converge with a more slick production and hopeful lyrics.

    Posted by Anonymous on Friday, September 19, 2003 at 11:45 AM (EDT)
    My Score:

    never heard of the term posi core?wow.check out insted,gorilla biscuits,shutdown ect.

    © 1999-2009 Punknews.org • Terms of Use • Privacy • About • ISSN 1710-5366 • RSS RSS Icon