IncommunicadoThis five-piece band from Pittsburgh is easily one of the most interesting and promising bands to surface in the past couple of years. With that being said, their influences are extremely common and countless groups attempt to recreate the sounds of At The Drive-In, Quicksand and Fugazi; as well as the rest of the original DC post-hardcore pioneers. Incommunicado's ability to infuse the melody and urgency of common punk rock into their post-hardcore blasts of energy are a welcome addition in my mind.
Vocalist Chris Feigh's voice has an eerily similar sound and styling to that of ATDI's Cedric Bixler-Zavala. At times his vocals bleed into a classic punk sound with Keith Morris (Circle Jerks, Black Flag) coming to mind. I've read many reviews where writers are comparing Incommunicado to Against Me! in addition to At The Drive-In. Unfortunately I have to disagree. It seems like anything melodic in the sense of a punk sound has AM!'s name attached to it. I hear more of a 80's SoCal punk sound in some of these tracks between the snotty bursts of melodic vocals, the "whoa, ooaa" backing vocals and the basic three-chord guitar work that spells the angular, post-hardcore guitars that are prevalent on 90% of this album. With that being said, the punk sound is only a minor player among the many Fugazi and ATDI influences here,
Incommunicado have taken an extremely popular subgenre in post-hardcore and are able to assemble their own competent and downright excellent sound with it. More often than not, bands that attempt post-hardcore either sound like At The Drive-In and Fugazi clones or they basically jumble together sloppy attempts at the subgenre, because they simply don't have the skills to recreate it properly. Incommunicado don't suffer from either malady and prosper from the fact that they don't only study from one post-hardcore book.
Rating: 5/5
Songs Worthy of Replay: 'Ratings', 'Detachments' & 'Electrode Cathode'
Synopsis: Incommunicado are like a fireworks show. Quick blasts that have you in awe while leaving you wanting more, after the all-to-quick half an hour. And like any good fireworks show the final songs on this record come at you fast and quick like a grand finale that has you talking about it for some time after...great CD!