Another Black Day

So, I begin the musical part of my voyage by the latest addition to my audio library. This is a band hailing from Fort Lauderdale, Florida entitled Another Black Day, and let’s just say that they’re content enough on being themselves and not succumbing to the pressures of the latest trend.

I’m really digging this band, especially considering how little I’ve heard of them. I was driving along one night, on my way home from work, and there is their latest single (which shares the same name as the band). I thought to myself, “damn, that’s a pretty catchy tune.” I go home, search for about an hour before I finally find the band in question, and now the four songs that I’ve been able to nick from Myspace have been a constant member of my winamp experience.

The song ANOTHER BLACK DAY, as cool as it is, takes a back seat to the more melodic and engaging WICKED SOUL. To alleviate any confusion from the beginning, this is nothing groundbreaking. These guys haven’t created a new type of music, nor have they strayed wholly from where the creative buck stops in most circles. Thus bringing me to my point: just who the fuck cares?

This is straight-up rock and roll. Nothing more, nothing less. If you’re looking for what passes for innovation, stick to the indy bullshit scene with the other fifteen year olds. If you want something that you can bang your head to at loud volumes, and basically dig on all levels, check out these guys.

They’ve got an audibly charismatic singer in vocalist and lead guitarist Matthew Wilkof. Oddly distant from the majority of hard rock/metal acts, Wilkof has veered off the path of contemporary metalheads, and looked to the past to remember and take advantage of that thing that singers used to do in decades past: sing. And that’s refreshing enough in itself. He doesn’t necessarily possess the greatest range that the world ever heard, but do you want rock and roll or Aretha Fucking Franklin? I thought so.

I’ve been unable to get my hands on the debut self titled disc as of yet (which is a real bummer), but of the few songs on hand, the two aforementioned songs stand out. Both are pessimistic and regretful odes to past mistakes and newfound predicaments that arise from such. Eerie interjections of diluted half-notes fill the space between verses, and the lyrics take you on an introspective ride through the mind of a repentant soul. As not only lead singer, but also lead guitarist, Wilkof has proven himself worthy of a history degree from any fine university. His research has also uncovered the facts that guitarists used to solo in times past — which he brings back into the fold.

Angel Hernandez, (drums), Das Haas (bass), and Ernesto Paez (guitar) help Wilkof bring to life the kind of music that makes you want to smash something with the sheer force of your mind alone. It has in it elements of Disturbed (from their more melodic work) mixed with the fretwork that those guys sorely miss most of the time in latter times.

In short, take these guys with you to the gym. They don’t make you want to kill the guy next to you like some of today’s more intense metal like Chimaira, Devildriver, or Superjoint Ritual, but they’ll have you hitting the weights like those bitches owed you some money. And afterwards, you’ll actually have words stuck in your head, not just various caveman-esque grunts at erratic intervals.

“Yeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, will you save my wicked soul, if I swear that I’ll change my ways?”

http://www.myspace.com/ablackday
http://www.anotherblackday.net