The Kodan Armada

The Kodan Armada: Collections Vol. 1Collections Vol. 1 (2004)
Magic Bullet Records

Reviewer Rating: 4

User Rating:

Contributed by: colincolin
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Published on January 15th 2006I was introduced to the Kodan Armada about four years ago, when bassist Cory Popp was roommates with a guy I knew in college. Cory was actually responsible for introducing me to a lot of good bands, one of which was his Louisville native Kodan Armada. Since then, the Armada has all but disbanded, fo.

I was introduced to the Kodan Armada about four years ago, when bassist Cory Popp was roommates with a guy I knew in college. Cory was actually responsible for introducing me to a lot of good bands, one of which was his Louisville native Kodan Armada. Since then, the Armada has all but disbanded, forming new bands and leaving just a few out of print records behind. But that was my introduction to the band. This album would serve as a pretty good combination introduction and retrospective to anyone trying to get a taste of what the Armada was about.

This song is about my dad raping my sister.

That's the first line of the album, that's how most people would be introduced to the Armada, and it really shows you what you're about to get into. The band was about, if anything, making the most of life, even at its absolute worst and most fucked up of times. The music is reminiscent of Circle Takes the Square, City of Caterpillar, and Saetia, but with a lyrical bias towards positive outlooks in times of an overly aggressive media, personal strife, and messed up social situations.

Throughout the album, live clips are dispersed between songs, clips from shows when the band would say what a song is about or why they wrote it. It's an interesting approach and the only negative part is that it is severely uneven; while the studio recordings are the smoothest and best produced of the Armada's catalogue, the live clips are static ridden and hard to make out.

The song choices for the album collect what are the best of Kodan's full-length, Ohio Killed the Grey Ghost, and various splits and out of print seven inches. Most of them sound re-recorded for this collection, which is good, because a lot of the prior recordings were uneven. I'd say the only negative part about the selection is that the choices are all very anthemic in quality; while listening to their separate albums, these songs serve as longer buildups between chaotic and short energetic spurts of shouting and mayhem. When you have songs that all resemble the same formula of an extended intro that leads into an extraordinarily fast and loud climax, the songs can lose some of their intrigue by the end of the disc. Notable exceptions are "Bullshit Buffet" and "Cops!," where the band basically just gets down to business and wreaks havoc for a minute.

In the end, if you're a fan of the very screamy hardcore that has metal influences (which come in amazingly well on the re-recorded "Butterfly Effect"), this album would be recommended. While not as well-written lyrically as the aforementioned Circle Takes The Square, it does possess a similar energy while still taking the time to actually be accomplished in the fashion of musicmanship. If you want some personal recommendations, I'd go with "iwishididn'thatemyself.com," "Short Walks Down Long Roads" and "Butterfly Effect."

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Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not respon sible for them in any way. Seriously.

tylerdurden8136 (March 31, 2006)

go kill yourself, colin.

Anonymous (February 7, 2006)

this band is absolutely incredible

the passion and intensity of their songs is just insane

Anonymous (January 17, 2006)

KILL ME WITH A CLICK BABY, KILL ME WITH A CLICK.
the lyrics can be pretty bad at times, but these kids were great. Members started a new band now, called In Tongues, its pretty good.

fritobandito (January 17, 2006)

dude, a TKA review!

mad fucking props, these guys killed. I miss them.

Steveman (January 16, 2006)

Wow... This review prompted me to check these guys out and I was really impressed. I downloaded the collection of songs, yes Pirated, but now I have another band to add to the list next time i hit up the record store.

tigersuit (January 16, 2006)

my top 10 albums of all time

Anonymous (January 16, 2006)

I saw this band back in the summer of '03 at Orlando Fest. They put on quite a show, and despite that I'm not a huge fan of that type of music, I still really enjoyed them. During the show the band kept yelling out "Get Loose!" through out the set, and people would join in. About half way through, the singer says "This song is about my dad raping my sister" followed by my friend yelling "Get Loose!" The singer was caught off guard, but still yelled something to the affect of "Fuck Yeah!" It was pretty fucking funny.

- Chris Kretzer

Anonymous (January 16, 2006)

omg viva la vinyl

Anonymous (January 16, 2006)

"all but disbanded? I'm pretty sure they recently had their last show."

It's called "being in qeue," you insensitive bastard!!! This is a song about a dog licking my blister...

-Will

Anonymous (January 15, 2006)

Their song coppers is amazing

colin (January 15, 2006)

all but disbanded? I'm pretty sure they recently had their last show.

i know, i wrote this review awhile ago (i forget exactly when), and i knew their last show was coming up or had just occured. sorry for the lack of clarity on that.

bjr (January 15, 2006)

My friends got to see them at their last show down in louisville with breather resist... Its a fuckin shame bands like Kodan and Wow Owls! are breaking up.

darkstarm (January 15, 2006)

Gonna check this out.

BizzleBrizzle (January 15, 2006)

all but disbanded? I'm pretty sure they recently had their last show.

Anonymous (January 15, 2006)

overrated.

danperrone (January 15, 2006)

hahaha yeah i was reading their lyrics and it has like four different parts and they're all liek a paragraph each

i was like there's no way the band is saying all this shit!

so good

SilentStorms (January 15, 2006)

Holler at this review. This band fucking owns. Errr ... owned. I love the fact that they have something like 5 vocalists.

killyouridols (January 15, 2006)

first time i heard that commentary, i misheard "this song is about my dog licking my sister".

Anonymous (January 15, 2006)

the montcalm/kodan armada split is still in print. www.myspace.com/brightskull

Anonymous (January 15, 2006)

So fucking amazing. This band bleeds honesty.

"No Has Never Had 3 Letters" would make my top 20 songs ever.

Anonymous (January 15, 2006)

I read an interview with this band in HeartattaCk. I never checked it out because screamo's not really my thing I spend money on, but they seem like good guys.

-Will

danperrone (January 15, 2006)

this band is fucking amazing

the passion and intensity of "no has never had three letters" is incomparable