REVIEW: Quintaine Americana, Decade of the Brain (Roadrunner)
- Sean Eric McGill
I like Tool. I like Tool a lot.
That being said, I'm actually surprised I liked Quintaine Americana's Decade of the Brain as much as I did, since they occasionally sound a lot like Tool. Perhaps it's because you get the feeling that they just sound like Tool from time to time, and they don't want to be Tool...there's a big difference.
This trio from Boston sticks pretty close to what has come to be the standard for heavier rock bands: a vocalist with a penchant for screaming, a heavy bass line, the usual. And while some of their songs have a dark edge to it, they don't seem hell-bent on trying to top everyone else's dark songs (which is good, since they'd have to top Korn's tale's of child sexual abuse...and I really don't want to hear that).
I basically said that to get this one point out of the way: if you're looking for something that will change the way you feel about hard rock music - this ain't it. Which leads to another point: that's not a bad thing. Quintaine Americana creates their own sound by melding the sounds of other bands. And what's more important is that a lot of these influences on their sound aren't really evident in the first listen or so.
Of note are the definitely blues-based "Swan Dive Into A Lake of Fire", and the Tool-esque "Old Tricks Again". But the highlights of the album are the album opener, "Black Car", and "Burn", two straight-ahead rock songs that had me ready to bounce around the room...but that's just me, I do that a lot.
When people ask me what kind of music I review for Consumable, my answer is usually something like "heavy stuff" - and that's about right. Oh sure, my year-end lists always have some abnormality in them (like when Tool and The Artist were 1 & 2 one year), but for the most part, what I review and listen to tends to be heavier rock.
This basically means that I'm pretty jaded musically (no doubt partly due to two whole Korn albums seemingly about little more than child sexual abuse). Say the word "fuck" on your album, and a few years ago, I would actually perk up an eyebrow. But alas, those days are long since gone. To put it simply...you can't shock me anymore...but you can bore me. But by not trying to be like every other band that has come down the pike since harder rock became "cool" again (it's too blue-collar to be "hip"), Quintaine Americana kept my interest from start to finish, and left me wanting more.
Not that I'm overly surprised. Roadrunner has always had a knack for putting out quality hard rock that falls outside the mainstream, and Quintaine Americana is no exception.
