Joshua Ashworth and his rotating crew of supporting musicians should be applauded for their stick-to-it-iveness. It's undoubtedly been a hard road since The Journey... So Far was released by Solid State in 2000 to mixed reviews and the band's tenure with the label subsequently, and seemingly prematurely, ended amidst some controversy. Seemingly prematurely in a legal sense that is--most Solid State bands seem to receive multiple album deals. I am not questioning the acumen of whoever's call it was. Society's Finest has never been a top notch band. Love, Murder, and a Three-Letter Word proves that again.
Despite a revolving door cast that has included notables like Tim Lambesis, now of As I Lay Dying fame, and former Embodyment vocalist Kris McCaddon who now slings an axe in Demon Hunter, Society's Finest has never been able to get much of anything going. Joshua Ashworth, the rock the city is built upon, certainly doesn't lack motivation. He seems to really love hardcore. He toured with Zao doing vocals for a while, and has a commitment to his own band which is impossible to deny. All the pieces for a legitimate band seem to be in place. And yet the puzzle isn't coming together.
Part of the problem is production value, at least this time around. Love, Murder, and a Three-Letter Word is a combination of five new tracks and four songs from a previous EP. Presumably they were all recorded fresh for this effort. Alas, it was to no avail. If the EP sounded tinny, this is no improvement. The drums are hollow, the vocals have no substance, and the bass doesn't cut through at all.
The real problem is in the song writing though, plain and simple. Anything else could be overcome. These songs are unfortunately disjointed in such a way as to be totally devoid of any aesthetic appeal to our "chaos gene". The Dillinger Escape Plan wows us with their onstage algebra. Converge lights the room on fire with their energy. The Locust dress like pedophile mutant bugs and scare us into at least hearing them out. Society's Finest just sound like a group of guys who were initially very, very excited to be in a hardcore band, but have gotten tired, and never really knew how to pull off the whole making music thing in the first place.
Each song's rhythmic backbone sounds like the drummer is confused about how to incorporate old school Slayer with something of his own. It's this self-awareness that kills the album. The guitar parts are never compelling, instead coming across as utterly juvenile in their simplicity and repetitiveness. In fact everything is repetitive in the worst sense, this fact being thrown into relief by the terrible production value.
Joshua Ashworth and possibly everyone else in the band has potential to make great art of some kind. They just need to abandon this ship, because it's sinking and they're not going to be able to bail fast enough to save it this time.
1.5/4
Similar sounding releases
2003ZaoLegendary
2005UnearthOur Days of Eulogy
2002Remembering NeverShe Looks So Good in Red
2001Brain:FAQBrainstorming
2001As I Lay DyingBeneath the Encasing Of Ashes
2003Bleeding ThroughThis Is Love, This Is Murderous
