Review by Rachel Jablonski
“Professionally speaking… don’t sell yourself short,” the advertisement I recently came across for a public speaking seminar read. Not that it is imperative, but somehow I don’t believe that Meatjack, the three-piece rock band from Baltimore, received the same memo. In short, Days of Fire is… well… short essentially. Concise songs, briefly phrased lyrics, and staccato note sequences comprise the album giving Days of Fire a segmented feel amidst its heavy backdrop. But be aware that this succinctness does not fall short of merit. The intense riff-oriented sound is hauntingly memorable with stimulating tempo changes and secure mental imagery.
Know your audience. Any considerate listener may be drawn to the outpouring of Days of Fire. The riff-oriented album creates patterned perpetuities that one may not soon forget. At times, however, the distorted up and down succession of notes tends to become overly familiar and thus almost distasteful. Remarkably though, just as familiarity is on the verge of sickening, a surprising urge to continue listening sustains. Eventually, subconscious desire for sequence continuation results even after the album has ended.
Build Your Message. Meatjack wastes no time in presenting their core material to the listening audience. Short, yet distinct notes and drawn out tones serve as focal points and saturate the album. The disposition of each song tends to feel segmented and at times anticlimactic due to blunt presentation. Fortunately, the patterned guitar work holds much of the album together allowing for overall solidity.
Picture It with Visual Aids. The title track, “Days of Fire,” sends the listener to a world of slow motion, freeze frame imagery. Dark, frame by frame mental images and movements correlate to each staccato guitar note. Swiftly, all feeling is drawn together in a dominating splurge of complete instrumentation. Whether solitary in its pure note form at the beginning of the song or integrated heavily with other instrumentation later, the guitar riff is very effective and maybe one of the best on the album. “Sea of Tranquility,” on the other hand, presents a slightly more composed mood. The musical illustration clearly mimics the wave-like motion of a large body of water. If the consistent patterning of guitar does not get to you in the song, the feeling of sea sickness may instead.
Perception is Everything. Though the guidelines of effective public speaking seem to loosely correlate to my perception of the latest album from Meatjack, Days of Fire does not intentionally regard any such rules. Reverse marketing at its finest, Meatjack seem to have successfully sold themselves short in a remarkable way.