The Flatliners - The Great Awake
Reviewed on May 2, 2008 by Roel
Instead of just reviewing the new cd by the Flatliners, I decided to just copy some lines from my punk rock diary for your reading pleasure.
15 May 2006: The Suicide Machines announce their break up. After all those years listening punk rock, hardly any bands seem irreplaceable to me. This band was special though and I never even seen them play live.
4 April 2007: I downloaded (shame on me) “Destroy To Create”, the first full length of this Toronto based band. The raw energy and catchy ska bits remind me of the Suicide Machines’ best work. Although uneven, the Flatliners instantly became my new favorite ska-punk band.
18 April 2007: The Flatliners sign to Fat Wreck Chords, still my favorite label. I’m pretty sure they are now going to carry on the torch the Suicide Machines left vacant. This most definitely means they’ll be coming to Europe anytime soon.
2 May 2007: I’m so impressed with a bunch of songs from “Destroy To Create”, I decided to spin four tracks of the album whilst DJ’ing at Europunk Fest II. I played “Fred’s got slacks” twice.
24 May 2007. The band has started to record their new album. I’m stoked.
4 September 2007: The band releases “The Great Awake” today. It’s got the Fat sound written all over it. Who needs another gritty well produced punk band? It’s been recently done before and better as well. There is hardly any ska to be found. It’s crap.
12 December 2007: I pop it back in. It’s not bad at all. It’s just different. It’s still seriously lacking in ska though. I have found some subtle upstroke guitar bits in “And the world files for chapter 11” and "Mastering the World's Smallest Violin". Those songs are pretty awesome.
13 December 2007: How could I have forgotten "This Respirator". An extremely catchy reggae song with those extremely gruff vocals making the song sound rather dirty. I love this song. The rest of the album is still mediocre.
12 March 2008: I pop it back in again. It’s just a plain good gritty punk album with a couple of extremely good songs. The occasional upstroke guitar adds some very necessary variation to the album. I can’t really find a weak song on here and it made me wonder why I disliked this album so much a while ago. The gritty vocals add energy to the catchy and well produced music. It reminds me a lot of that other rather new Fat band, The Sainte Catherine’s, only with far better vocal delivery and catchier songwriting. I guess it’s all been done before, but all in all it’s a really good gritty melodic punk rock album. I guess their live show will heavily benefit from the combination of their older and new work.
10 May 2008: This will be the day the band will play Groezrock. They’re opening the festival at 10.30 AM. This will be the first time I will check out a full set of an opening band at Groezrock.
Conclusion: if you’re into the Fat sound in general, you’ll love this album. For fans of the band’s debut full length: they’ve certainly changed their style and although you might prefer their previous work its well worth letting this album grow on you.
Album Information
| Best Song: | This Respirator |
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| Medium/Type: | Full-Length |
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| Released: | September 4th, 2007 |
| Record Label: | Fat Wreck Chords |
Related Links:
| Viewed: | 179 times |
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Tracklisting
- 1 July! August! Reno! 12%
- Eulogy
- ...And The World Files 11
- This Respirator
- Meanwhile, In Hell...
- Mother Teresa Chokeslams The World
- This Is Giving Up
- Mastering The World's Smallest Violin
- You Guys Want One Of These?
- The Words Are Bullets
- Haj Johnson Smokes Cigarettes
- KHTDR
The Flatliners
Album Reviews
 | The Great Awake Sep 4, 2007    |