Search - Christiansen :: Forensics

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Scott Heisel | Cleveland, OH | 12/21/2002

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Christiansen is another one of those bands like Lewis [read my review of Lewis' most recent album here to better understand]. They're not the same type of band musically, but they are the same in every other aspect.What do I mean? I mean that the band sounds really good, first off - they take a mixture of the sounds of At The Drive-In, Fugazi, and a few other bands of that post-hardcore ilk, and instead of ripping it off, they expand upon it, adding more subtle elements [like the perfectly placed piano in "Transistorized Landscapes," and the creepy trumpet wail in "Traditional Ghosts"].The 6 songs on this EP are all very compelling. Each song goes every which way in tempo and dynamics, and it keeps the listener on their toes. Singer Brandon's lyrics are not as obscure and obtuse as, say Cedric from from ATDI [no dancing on corpses' ashes here!], but they're still vague enough in songs like "Traditional Ghosts" to make you scratch your head [not to mention that the vocals are mixed really low, so it makes it kind of hard to pick out the more rapidly sung parts].The only major problem with this CD is the same with the Lewis CD - once you take it out of the player, it's like amnesia. It's nearly impossible to remember one of these songs after you stop listening to the disc, and that is incredibly frustrating because I really like some of the songs on here [especially "Let Us Now Die Famous Men" - this would be the "radio single" if such a format of radio existed].All in all, this is a good EP, but there's better stuff out there. Go see the band live, however, they're much more impressive and the material makes much more of an impact.[As a random aside - do not play this CD in Winamp or Windows Media Player on your computer - for some odd reason, those programs won't play the CD's last track.]"