Pensive is one of the founding bands on the new label 2 Jake Records, a division of Grrr Records and also new home to Crashdog. 2 Jake Records has hopes of competing with Tooth and Nail, putting out hard music with a lot of ministry in mind. To that end, 2 Jake has signed Pensive out of Pennsylvania. These four young men have written and recorded some interesting music for their debut. The musicianship is here; with high-grade guitar playing by Brett Deter (who is also Zao's new guitarist) and a talented rhythm section of Martin Lunn on bass and Joshua Walters behind the drums. Chad Monticue is the band's vocalist.
It was Chad's singing style on the subtlety of silence that interested me. When I saw the band live, I was a bit surprised to discover that Chad does all the vocals, because on the record there are two styles of singing. One is a nice singing voice that carries the songs with good tone and pleasant, although alternative, sound. The other is a death metal scream. Sometimes Chad switches between the two styles in the same line.
Pensive has come up with a distinctive sound by melting several styles together, including thrash, hard core, alternative and praise music. (When I saw them live, they did a new Glenn Kaiser-penned praise song from his Grrr release Throw Down Your Crowns.) The energetic music drives this band's songs while the melodies slowly bounce between two and, sometimes, three notes per song. This has the unfortunate effect of making the vocals seem a bit tedious. The saving grace for this record is the intermix of the rough screamer and the smooth songster playing with these wistful song lines.
The record ends with about fifteen minutes of beach sounds (waves washing up on shore and sea gulls crying into the ocean breeze) followed by the last notes on the record: backwards guitar. Is it a ponderous, meditative or even pensive juncture? Were they aiming at a Beatles' White Album-like effect? Perhaps, but I think they should wait until they have recorded their Sgt. Pepper's... first. Pensive has succeeded in coming up with an interesting musical style, one that could go in several directions. I, for one, look forward to their sophomore release to see where Pensive heads from here.
3 tocks
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