An association with Dance Gavin Dance front-man Will Swan comes loaded with expectations of technical proficiency and quality songwriting. Stolas’ previous two records have been released through Swan’s own label Blue Swan Records and guitarist Sergio Medina plays alongside Swan in side-project Sianvar, so there’s no escaping the connection between the two. To date, their technical skill has never been in any doubt, but despite both records having major promise, neither has maintained a consistent, high level throughout.
Based on the two singles that preceded this third full-length, ‘Bellwether’ and ‘Damage Division’, it seemed that ‘Stolas’ would be the record to cement the band’s potential. Both singles are full of energy, dynamics and excitement, the latter being the ingredient lacking from previous records, and they put Stolas on a par, if not above, their peers. However, these stand-out moments are flanked by songs that fail to inspire and sadly dampen the mood once more.
The band have been through some changes since the last record; vocalist and rhythm guitarist Jason Welche left the band toward the end of 2015 and drummer Carlo Marquez has assumed the role of lead vocalist, in addition to being the studio drummer. Marquez has an excellent voice with a tone that matches the band’s sound well and on ‘Bellwether’ he puts his voice to excellent use, sounding not too dissimilar to Closure in Moscow front-man Christopher de Cinque.
This is Marquez’s first foray into lead vocalist territory and as the album progresses, his lack of experience shows. Despite having an excellent tone, the vocal arrangements don’t do enough to elevate songs and as the record progresses, the melodies bleed together and become distractions rather than vital elements of the songs. Musically, ‘Euphoria’ could sit alongside any Dance Gavin Dance song but the vocals meander without purpose and get lost in the memory and, by association, so does the whole song.
As Blue Swan Records alumni, Stolas deliver what you’d expect instrumentally. Medina’s guitar work is excellent and single-handedly elevates tracks like ‘Anecdoche’ with clever licks and an impressive, unannounced solo. It works well with the effective drumming and warm vocal tone and but without vocal arrangements that match this level of quality, it feels disjointed and ultimately fails to meet the expectations set by the musicality.
The three remaining members of Stolas are superb musicians with some great ideas and there’s a phenomenal album inside them bursting to get out. ‘Bellwether’, ‘Damage Division’ and ‘Catalyst’ show that they have the quality but unfortunately by selecting these tracks as lead singles, it set an unfeasible level of expectation that the rest of the album couldn’t meet. If they can sculpt these ideas into songs that stay at a consistently high level throughout, they’ll be able to recognise the vast amount of potential they have and create the album we all know they’re capable of.
MARK JOHNSON