After the success of its breakthrough 2003 album "Page Avenue," Story of the Year has struggled to define its identity in the strange rock scene of the day. The band's sophomore release for Maverick Records, "In the Wake of Determination" (2006), charted poorly, failed to spawn a successful single and, even worse for fans, strayed from the band's screamo-rock roots to a more metal direction.
Story of the Year returns in 2008 with a new label, Epitaph Records, an old producer, John Feldmann (who also produced the band's debut) and many of the same tried-and-true sounds that made them a success in the first place. While the melodies of "Page Avenue" haven't returned completely, the new record is most definitely a breath of fresh air after the stiflingly brutal "In the Wake of Determination."
That said, the album certainly has its share of screaming. The first track, "Choose Your Fate," which begins with a ménage of George W. Bush war quotes, kicks in instantaneously with some harsh, grating vocals from lead singer Dan Marsala. The first thing that even an audio dilettante notices is that everything on the album sounds terrific.
Feldmann, longtime producer of The Used and Goldfinger, lends his nimble fingers behind the boards to the pristine sound quality of the album.
The first single and second track from the album, entitled "Wake Up," is, surprisingly enough, not the record's strongest song, but it is certainly the most mainstream, with almost no screaming involved. "Wake Up" is understandably the safest bet for a first single, but it's so generic that it's unlikely to garner much attention at all.
Fortunately, the following song, "The Antidote," makes up for the aforementioned shortcomings of "Wake Up." Building up from a slinky, electronically-looped guitar line, the song explodes with the entrance of drummer Josh Wills, who throughout the album relies more on his deep groove rather than technical prowess. The hackneyed lyrics for "The Antidote" set the tone for the rest of the album, full of clichéd expressions such as, "All we need is a reason/ All we need is here inside of us."
The highlight of the album comes from "Tell Me," a slamming riff-driven rocker that lets every member of the band do what they're best at. The drums take a backseat to the distorted riffage of the guitars, and the guitars back off during the chorus to let Marsala do his thing as a melodic frontman. Bassist Adam Russel (aka The Skull) is the unsung hero of the song, with his basslines dropping in and out at the perfect times to allow the song to build to a bone-crushing crescendo.
Things start to fall apart about halfway through the album with tracks such as "Message to the World" and "Apathy is a Deathwish."
The songs themselves aren't awful; they're just so terribly typical of Story of the Year's style that it's hard to tell them apart from the others on the album, or any others on previous albums, for that matter. But for fans in the know, the guitar riff from "Apathy is a Deathwish" sounds eerily similar to that of "Our Time is Now," a track from three years prior.
If "The Black Swan" is any indicator, Story of the Year is one of those bands that was at its best while at its worst. The band's first album, "Page Avenue," is generally considered to be too much on the pop side and not the band's true style, but that same catchiness mixed with raw energy was what made the record such an anomaly in the hard-rock genre.If Story of the Year continues down its current path, it will maintain a legion of dedicated fans, but never grow in terms of style or popularity.
