Evolocity - Evolocity
Nuerra Records - 1055-2 - August 8th, 2006
By Brandon Strader
Something you may hear people say all the time is "don't judge a book by its cover." The cover art looks pretty simple and boring, though the idea is cool enough. There are spiders, a couple parrots, and even a butterfly spaced around the center to make a design that looks similar to a kaleidoscope image with dull, unattractive images. The back cover shows the band wearing black, red, and white clothes completely with makeup and earrings with half of them trying to look punky, and a couple trying to look cool.
(like the fellow all the way on the right, wow - what a threatening look of masculinity!) After the short introduction track "Evol.", the first real song, "Too Far", forges ahead. The music is a lot better than one would think upon witnessing the artwork! The vocalist's emotive performance is great and fits the music perfectly, but the vocals lack any kind of effects. A light reverb on all of the vocals would make them sit more smoothly amongst the music, and moments when the vocalist holds out an extended note could have some kind of echo or heavier reverb to give it a cooler sound. "Too Far" treads into territory familiar to the band
Tool with tribal tom-based percussion patterns, and a well-timed rhythm performance.
"Wise Man" continues in a funkier direction than the previous track. They did add more echo and reverb on the vocals for this track, and it's true - it DOES add quite a bit to the sound! Perhaps they just forgot to add the effects on the first song....
Evolocity also do some more atmospheric passages, and even southern-rock sounding arrangements! "Duh Wayne" has a folky-sounding acoustic riff and a saxaphone that leads into some heavy rocking riffs, and back into the folky-riff verse. The bass line is pretty interesting during the verse with the style the bassist performs, with some hammer-ons and such. The song is very catchy and could definitely sit comfortably amongst so many others on the rock radio stations! The mixture of the vocals, bass, percussion,
and saxaphone during the verse really give it a funky feel! "Herbie (Doesn't Like To Make Toys)" starts out really funny with a guy shouting angrily,
'What! Herbie doesn't like to make toys!?' The actual song is one of the more irritating ones just because of the rapidly spoken vocals during the verse, yet the song still manages to evoke some head-bobbing. "Quick And Easy" has one of the heavier verses of the album, and the chorus features some very catchy vocal lines. Also if you listen carefully enough, you can hear the vocalist singing
'la la la la la' in the background during the chorus!
"Dark" is probably the coolest track because of the jazzy bass performance, and the atmospheric bluesy guitar solo that is covered with reverb during the introduction to the song. There's also a bit of subtle keyboard string performance in there that covers up some of the empty space in the mix nicely. The vocalist displays his falsetto skills by performing a high vocal harmony with a soft tone that really sounds pleasant amongst the normal harmony, something that isn't too overly common and really dictates the skills of this vocalist.
Evolocity definitely have the whole songwriting thing down, though some of their arrangements sound a bit too cliche, like the rocking vibes of "Troop Support" and others... Other than that, the songwriting is pretty spontaneous and there is something here for everyone to enjoy! An impressive sophmore release from a band that is sure to go pretty far...
7.5/10
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Official Evolocity Website
Official Nuerra Records Website
