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The Chariot's second full-length The Fianceé is an ambitious set of experimental metalcore dirges that packs the band's sound into an economical half-hour and lets up a fair amount on the Botch aping of past releases. Its mere all-over-the-placeness pulls in the listener hard, but the band's weird breakdowns and throbbing intensity certainly doesn't deter, either.

A grueling set of screams and flailing drums open the disc in "Back to Back," which proceeds with staccato guitar riffs resembling emergency broadcast interruption noises and the band's signature pound. "They Drew Their Swords" ends with an unrelenting series of guitar squalls, while the four-minute "And Shot Each Other" pushes and pulls (okay, granted the first minute of this one does sound quite a bit like Botch) with an onslaught of horror chords before changing it up with a temporarily straightforward tempo and vocalist Josh Scogin screaming back and forth with one of his members, until a choir listed in the liner notes as the 'Sacred Harp Singers' seeps their way in and then closes it a cappella; yeah, it's bizarre, but it kinda works. Scogin is found warning of blood to be found on the branches over just a mere mess of slammed drums in "The Deaf Policemen," aside from a couple chug riffs that initially wait to the side. "Forgive Me Nashville" is an exercise in frustration and distortion while "The Trumpet" is literally an entire choral piece that closes it out.

Contributions also come in the form of Paramore's Hayley Williams and mewithoutYou's Aaron Weiss. Unfortunately, Weiss is relegated to some mere harmonica work in "Forgive Me Nashville," but Williams adds a distinct layer to "Then Came to Kill," in this context sounding a bit different from her more pop-based performances in Paramore as she yells along with the frothing Scogin.

One thing to remember is the Chariot's Christian underpinnings. Whether or not it was intentional, this makes The Fianceé all the more horrifying with apocalyptic and/or damning warnings like "The wrath of God's grace is but an ocean to a child" ("They Drew Their Swords") and "We feel the resurrection near / Our life in Christ concealed, and with his glorious presence here our earthen vessels filled" ("And Shot Each Other").

Last bits to mention: You may also notice that instead of writing entire sentences for song titles as on the previous LP, the Chariot spread a couple sentences out over the track listing ("Back to Back" / "They Faced Each Other" / "They Drew Their Swords" / "And Shot Each Other"). Additionally, Matt Goldman's raw production is wholly refreshing with so many bands turning up glossy bullshit. Lastly, the century-old newspaper font/presentation (at least) in the liner notes and old-timey photos make The Fianceé an aesthetically pleasing package.

The Fianceé shows a band willing to mix it up just a bit despite a hefty amount of pre-conceived notions. To be sure, there's still spots of total unoriginality, but the number of left turns alone here take us far enough into new, impressive areas.

STREAM
They Faced Each Other
And Shot Each Other



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    Posted by douglas_is_rad on 2008-02-18 10:51:51
    My Score:

    The only good The Chariot album is the first one. It's all sucked dick since then.

    Posted by jay_klinkhammer on 2007-05-30 17:03:49
    My Score:

    Fantastic CD. I love this band so much.

    Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, April 22, 2007 at 1:27 PM (EDT)
    My Score:

    horrible

    Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, April 21, 2007 at 12:52 PM (EDT)

    Religion is fundamentally not hardcore. I am sick of this shit.

    -Will

    WHO CARES, BEACUSE A RELIGIOUS PERSON WANTS TO CREATE HARDCORE...I'M AGAINST RELIGION TOO BUT DONT THINK IT SHOULD BE EXCLUDED FROM A FORM OF EXPRESSION....YOU'RE LYRICS NEED SOME SORT OF MESSAGE OR THEME...GIVE IT UP MAN

    Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, April 18, 2007 at 11:48 PM (EDT)

    All of their good material was written before they went Rasta. And you'd be hardpressed to find anything punk or hardcore or about the homophobic bullshit they started preaching after that.

    -Will

    Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, April 18, 2007 at 6:39 PM (EDT)

    so by that logic, bad brains weren't a hardcore band.

    Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, April 18, 2007 at 4:24 PM (EDT)
    My Score:

    Religion is fundamentally not hardcore. I am sick of this shit.

    -Will

    Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, April 18, 2007 at 11:38 AM (EDT)

    forget about christian hardcore. forget about me without jesus.

    Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, April 18, 2007 at 5:06 AM (EDT)
    My Score:

    Average

    Posted by Steve_McQueen on 2007-04-18 00:39:38
    My Score:

    This is a great cd. Not perfect, but great. I was really expecting more from the chick in Paramore, but oh well. The last track is just weird. The added harmonica playing at the end of Forgive Me Nashville is pretty awesome (Kinda like the banjo on the last cd). I give it extra credit just for the track listing.

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, April 17, 2007 at 11:20 PM (EDT)

    ack ack ack ack how the fuck do you shoot yourself with a sword?

    Posted by Allular on 2007-04-17 22:05:50

    "seriously, are there actually people out there who choose to listen to this. if so, why? id really like to understand the appeal"

    I've always been a fan of rip-your-face off aggressive music. It's heavy without resorting to any Iron Maiden-core posturing and the technicality of the music excites me as well, one of the main reasons I like Botch.

    The Chariot actually has conviction and do it for more than just playing music for the hell of it. I can respect a band who has fun but I respect bands more who actually find some sort of purpose with their music as well.

    Posted by the4footpartysub on 2007-04-17 21:17:34

    they put on a great live show and josh is a really nice guy.

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, April 17, 2007 at 4:11 PM (EDT)

    "So the review seems to be in contrast with the rating. So if there are spots wrong with the album, why not mention those more if you are going to give it a 6?"

    6 is a pretty average good rating a 7 would mean that it had some exceptionally good qualities. Brian seems to think there are good points to the album but nothing amazing or even exceptional.

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, April 17, 2007 at 1:49 PM (EDT)

    seriously, are there actually people out there who choose to listen to this. if so, why? id really like to understand the appeal.

    Posted by tenwestchaser on 2007-04-17 13:29:22

    So the review seems to be in contrast with the rating. So if there are spots wrong with the album, why not mention those more if you are going to give it a 6?

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, April 17, 2007 at 12:48 PM (EDT)

    christain metal nazi reggae = perfect description of POD

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, April 17, 2007 at 10:17 AM (EDT)

    jesus loving metalheads? christain metal=nazi reggae.

    Posted by Allular on 2007-04-17 02:47:34

    Plus, I'd rather a band rip off Botch than rip off At The Gates for the millionth time.

    Posted by Allular on 2007-04-17 02:46:06

    I still think the Nirvana riff ripoff in "The Deaf Policeman" is amazing and deserving of a laugh or two.

    It seems like the Chariot's cleaned up their songwriting but at the same time staying utterly brutal. I can't think of another aggressive band churning out more creepy, unrelenting and convicting music right now. All coming from a Christian band too.

    Posted by Amazingthemike on 2007-04-17 02:21:33

    drop dead norma chariot wears prada

    Posted by Albert_Belle on 2007-04-17 00:48:14
    My Score:

    No bueno.

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, April 17, 2007 at 12:24 AM (EDT)
    My Score:

    solid release

    - TREOS

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