Review by Rachel Jablonski
According to the documentary entitled REHAB that I saw on HBO last night, “Every year, two million Americans enter drug and alcohol treatment programs – 80% relapse.” This statistic is hard to comprehend, particularly for those who do not use, but it is a reality that is too often overlooked by the socially unconscious. Struggles with drug abuse can be hard to face and difficult for others to watch. Thus, the causes of and reasons behind an individual’s habit are often ignored. Typically, this results in the user being denied the support they very much need in order to refrain from using. No matter the poison of choice, the frequency of use, or the stimulant that began the drug use in the first place, judging, reprimanding, or disowning a user is unacceptable. Drug abuse is a problem that can be resolved, but it is without an easy solution.
These concepts are not foreign to a band from Minneapolis called American Head Charge. The band, having formed when vocalist Martin Cock and bassist Chad Hanks first met in a Minnesota rehab facility, is no stranger to these difficulties. But the band members have now collectively focused their energies on two major albums, The War of Art, and now their latest release called The Feeding.
The Feeding is a collection of eleven songs that show the consistent flavor of American Head Charge. The devised riffs and melodic/screaming vocals, accompanied by stable drums and complimentary keys, create quite a discernable sound. “Loyalty,” the album’s first single, begins the disc and covers almost every aspect of the band. The song begins with a heavy riff, slows down and softens to accentuate the melodic vocals, contains unswerving drums, screams, composite keys, and a catchy chorus – it pretty much shows it all. But it definitely is not the most prominent song on the album.
“Dirty” would have been my pick as a first single. It is impossible not to be absorbed in the song. A rapid guitar note progression is at first present, but slows during the verse while melodic vocals take over. But the hook of the chorus is where the song explodes. That proves that we are dirt, so dirty, dirt, d-d-dirty, dirty... The lyrics seem very simplistic and maybe ridiculously redundant with all the “dirties,” but the tune is just so catchy. The guitar riff of the song, like many others on the album, is heavy, but not overly distorted. The sound is kept more or less clean to emphasize the vocals and assert the melodious guitars. “Ridicule” contains a very unsoiled and pleasant riff at the start as well. The track progresses in heaviness, but the calming riff is what is most memorable. One of my favorite riffs on the album is present in the song “Walk Away.” The guitar leads the listener down a slow, emotional path of ups and downs. It begins rather steadily, progresses to lower spectrum of the musical scale, and eventually rises to the major scale. The song has an unsettling positive spin to it, but a comfortable feeling is regained as American Head Charge returns to more down tuned songs like “Fiend.”
“Fiend” is a dark song full of mystery and suspense. The mood is created by the low keys and effects, screeches comparable to that of the shower scene in the Alfred Hitchcock movie Psycho. The listener may fall victim to “Cowards” as well. The track is pure fast and pure heavy and would be a great song with which to start a live pit. The album is so diversified, ranging from slow, steady, and soft to swift, shaky, solid, that it is bound to have some sort of listener appeal.
The Feeing is an easy listening album, not in the sense of light elevator music because this is a pure rock album, but in the sense that any rock fan could easily listen over and over again. As far as the stats on drug use and rehab, please at least be aware and make sure to look out for one another.