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3 - Wake Pig

 

	RELEASED: November 1, 2005 PRODUCER:Thomas Hart Benton LABEL:Metal Blade Records BAND:Joey Eppard Billy Riker Joe Cuchelo Daniel Grimsland Joe Stote Chris “Gartdrumm” Gartmans
+ Entirely unique, Tight musicianship, Unpredictable songwriting - Extremely polarizing	TRACKS: 1.Alien Angel 2.Monster 3.Dregs 4.Wake Pig 5.Bramfutura 6.Trust 7.Dogs of War 8.Soul to Sell 9.One Way Town 10.Queen 11.Circus Without Clowns 12.Where’s Max 13.Amaze Disgrace

OVERVIEW

You genre nazis out there are going to have a field day with this one.  I remember my roommate first playing this CD for me and thinking something like “This has got to be the most absurdly schizophrenic band I’ve ever heard!”  And I don’t mean schizophrenic like Dillinger Escape Plan or Between the Buried and Me, where you’ll have crushing death metal that all of a sudden switches to fusion jazz or any of that crap.  I mean that 3 has entirely their own sound and crashes through the 13 tracks on this headtrip of an album with little regard for genre boundaries, songwriting conventions, or radio approval.  And while it’s not the sort of thing that’ll grab your ear and have you nodding along the first time, it’s definitely not something you’ll forget anytime soon.

            To help out those who have never heard the band before, the most obvious comparison is Coheed and Cambria, who these guys just so happen to be good friends with (former Coheed guitarist Josh Eppard is an ex-member, and the two are frequent tourmates).  But to write 3 off as a Coheed sound-alike is to totally pigeonhole the band and ignore the fact that 3 is easily one of the most innovative rock acts in recent history.  Imagine (and this is going to be a stretch) a combination of Rush, Coheed and Cambria, S.C.I.E.N.C.E-era Incubus, 311, the Deftones, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Powerman 5000 electronics, a bit of Dream Theater and King Crimson, and an entirely unique slapped acoustic guitar that really doesn’t sound like much of anything you’ve ever heard before.  That’s a really terrible description, but the bottom line is that explaining what 3 sounds like is like trying to explain ice cream to a little kid.  The only way to understand this crap is to listen to it.

SONGS

3 kick off “Wake Pig” with a smart move and put their most accessible song first – “Alien Angel” is as close to conventional and hooky as 3 is going to get, but it features an instantly memorable chorus and serves as a good primer for the rest of the record, right before “Monster” kicks things straight off the deep end with eerie melodies, demented rhythms, and that slap guitar I mentioned earlier.  “Dregs” is an acoustic-driven, trippy number that’s another full-on exhibition of 3’s bizarre style, and “Wake Pig” almost sounds normal by comparison, although the melodies and chord structures are definitely still peculiar enough to keep 3 squarely in their niche.  “Bramfutura” is a flat out incredible acoustic guitar tour de force – guitarist Joey Eppard throws tapping, slapping, open-hammer-plucking, flamenco strumming, and every other trick in the book at the acoustic in a virtuoso performance that has to be heard to be believed.  Things get back to normal (relatively speaking) with “Trust”, and “Dogs of War” is another foray into creepy acoustic-driven minor-key territory.  “Soul to Sell” almost has a bouncing, 90’s rock feel to it, but of course it maintains 3’s signature meandering falsetto melodies and jazz chords, and “One Way Town” has some great odd-time rhythms and, oddly, one of the album’s most sing-able choruses.  “Queen” is another mind-bending exhibition of turn-on-a-dime time changes, and the change to “Circus Without Clowns” is almost frightening, with mostly just acoustic guitar and melodies and lyrics that are downright haunting.  “Where’s Max” puts bassist Daniel Grimsland’s slap skills straight at the forefront of a barrage of hyperspeed, off-kilter riffage that almost sounds like really old Incubus on speed.  That leaves us with the album closer “Amaze Disgrace”, which is almost impossible to describe, except that it’s a 16-minute opus that features the reappearance of parts from “Trust” and if the rest of the CD hasn’t confused the crap out of you already, this number should do the trick.

CONCLUSION

Put quite simply, 3 is unlike anything you’ve ever heard before, period.  If you’re one of those people that keep lamenting about the lack of creativity in today’s rock scene, you owe it to yourself to pick this album up.  The originality alone is enough to warrant your bucks in the record store.  So if it’s so great, why did I only give it 3.5/5?  Well, the bottom line is that 3 is still an acquired taste, and it’s kind of like watching a Tim Burton film; it’s predictably brilliant, but definitely not something you want to do all the time.  Grab it if you want something that’s guaranteed to trip you out, and you won’t be disappointed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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