Vancouver’s A Textbook Tragedy are new signings to United by Fate records (who’ve given us Johnny Truant and the Architects) and are just plain up fucking heavy. I mean really, outrageously heavy. The kind of down-tuning than means you would get through a ridiculous amount of guitar strings. They somehow even manage to drop in the occasional bit of melody too. We aren’t talking soaring harmonies Killswitch Engage style, but that is no bad thing. We are talking light sprinklings of mince in a sea of not very mincey music.
I’ve scratched my head over the last couple of years to try and understand why bands this heavy seem to attract 15 year old girl fans, when they are really incredibly hard to listen to. The conclusion, we are at the arse-end of a strange trend of intense music being mainstream culture. This lot will appeal to those aforementioned 15 year olds. They are more than that though – this album is quite an original sounding piece. It isn’t as memorable as say, the last couple of Darkest Hour records or Parkway Drive, but it’s got its place.
Mike