reviews

Neither silent nor a treatment. Discuss among yourselves.

The Bled - Silent Treatment
Alternative Press - Rachel Lux on 1/16/08 @ 3:38 PM - altpress.com

[3.5/5] When Tucson, Arizona's the Bled turned up the Radiohead and turned down the Converge on 2005's Found In The Flood, fans bitched left and right that the band had all but lost their massively heavy edge. Silent Treatment should certainly cure those complaints with some of the most brutal slabs of metalcore they've written, procured nicely by producer Brian McTernan (Hot Water Music, Circa Survive). However, more impressive is how the band stepped up their technical prowess with time changes, hyperactive alternate pickings and dynamics so striking a certain canyon in the band's home state comparatively pales. The Bled haven't exactly become the Dillinger Escape Plan, but in the face of an oversaturated, usually cheesy genre, they sound entirely more genuine and generally weirder in their melodic detours. Vocalist James Munoz momentarily sounds like Davey Havok in "Threes Away," and yet never once like Thom Yorke (as he has at given points on the band's other two albums). He also manages to convey communication problems to the listener at the absolute peak of his vocal range. Merely staying consistent is difficult enough for any band, but three albums in, the Bled are carefully taking steps to perfect the path to become evolutionary. (VAGRANT) Brian Shultz

Rocks Like:
Cave In's Until Your Heart Stops
Scarlet's This Was Always Meant To Fall Apart.
Botch's An Anthology Of Dead Ends EP

IN-STORE SESSION WITH VOCALIST JAMES MUNOZ AND GUITARIST JEREMY RAY TALLEY

What did Brian McTernan bring to the producer's seat?
TALLEY: A heavier band like us, I think he really puts himself in the band and takes them under his wing. Not that he doesn't do that with, say, Circa Survive or whatever, but he definitely had a lot of fun.
MUNOZ: [It was] the best recording experience ever... Really comfortable and really relaxed. Everyone was more focused, and he's just really hands-on and really vocal about his opinions.

So he was harder on you than past producers?
MUNOZ: Yeah, I mean, [Pass The Flask] was just us recording a bunch of songs with [Saosin guitarist] Beau [Burchell] and then [Found In The Flood] was [Mark] Trombino, [who] was more involved in sounds and stuff. But Brian goes mad, digs in there trying to get the best out of what you can get from him, and he always wants more stuff so he's really fucking passionate about music. So this was way cooler. Nothing like that before.

In the press release it talks about how the album discusses the "fear and pain" you go through when you have to "change things for the better." How recent are these experiences you culled from?
MUNOZ: A lot of times when I'm under pressure to write something, it kind of forces me to take a look at certain situations. It wasn't necessarily all me-"This is all my bullshit, and here's my problems." It was me and other people and a lot of friends, relatives or complete strangers who have things going on. It boils down to whether or not you're actually able to get things off your chest and talk to somebody and be real, and a lot of times I think I'm always hiding or shutting myself off and that's how I deal with shit.

Communication problems within the band?
MUNOZ: It's everything, man. It's within the band, your friendships and relationships with other people.

You had more time to write this album than the others. What did that enable you to do?
TALLEY: Take the songs apart [and] put them together again as many times as we needed to do. For me, personally, the songwriting being a full-time job when I'm at home doing the writing process, it took a lot of the pressure off.

Do you ever worry about overthinking things?
TALLEY: I always worry about overthinking things. I think being over-analytical is one of my worst personal habits. [Luckily,] I think one of our assets as a band is knowing when a song feels done and knowing when it needs something more. -Brian Shultz

Official Website: http://www.vagrant.com



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