Okay kids! First things first, let it be known that the latest from New Jersey’s Vexes is a lot to take in. It’s a double album! And that’s a bold move if you don’t have the material to back it up. We can think of a few veteran acts who’ve done the same recently releasing records that just failed to connect and missed the mark entirely. Not the case with Imagine What We Could Destroy /// If Only Given Time whose only fault seems to be the abundance of compelling consistency within its’ sonic walls so trust us when we say you’re going to wanna set some time aside to soak this all in.
But I digress!
Getting back to bold for a sec, it’s a bold fucking claim to be compared to Will Haven. Like, being compared to the Sacramento natives is akin to being compared to Kyuss in our book. As in, those are some sacred ass bands that are above reproach. That said, Vexes definitely have some of that aural magic in their arsenal creating wall of sound after wall of sound throughout the upcoming double album. And while vocalist/guitarist Charlie Berezansky is certainly no Grady Avenell, the singer shines in the vocal department with a delivery more akin to Far’s Shaun Lopez or Skrape’s Billy Keeton.
Now howzabout we explore some of those 24 tracks!
“Beyond The Sinking” is a driving iconoclast of an album opener sporting a tempered fury with John Klagholz and Berezansky’s guitars ringing out while vocally there’s this sort of measured madness that adds an extra manic air to all the restrained chaos that Vexes manages to convey at the onset of IWWCD///IOGT. “End With Me” is a steady ripper like deftones mixing it up with Thrice while “We Are If We Dare” is a sparing spectacle of aural delight that devilishly melds Emo and Hardcore.
“E.O.T.W.” vibrantly vibrates for an astounding six minutes and change and brings about a glistening tonal change as does “Gather Your Bones” with a miraculous nine minutes of debonair headbanging shoegaze. “dryspit.”, on the other hand, makes no excuses for what it’s all about, bringing a harder heft with Justin Graves and Bobby Carpenter’s drum and bass rhythmic assault at the forefront until Berezansky’s broad vocal delivery draws a line between heavy and heavenly.
“Twisting Of The Points” is frenetic and frenzied before a calm washes over all and fans are left with a mid-tempo Grunge Rawker that slays in other ways despite the intensity hurled at the earholes throughout, “Inexoral” is a powerful hard hitter that continuously slams listeners over the head with wave after wave of the almighty riff, and “Phantom Pain” is a solid slammer as Graves’ drumming hits a stinging staccato like a GOTdamn metronome.
And it’s not all banger after banger after banger here. Throughout you have palette cleansers like the childlike instrumental “Collapse At Limit” to keep things fresh and interesting along with tracks like “The Dream Disease” with its’ eerie instrumental outro and “A Darker Motion” and it’s experimentation that sound like excursions off the beaten path but don’t really stray too far texturally from the fabric of IWWCD///IOGT.
Getting back to the Rawk, “Energy Vampire(s)” is a roller coaster of riffage from Berezansky and Klagholz and later, “At Nothing” adds more colors to the Vexes sonic kaleidoscope with this piano-laden number. Arriving at the finale, penultimate piercer “Away Stars” is a haunting prelude that leads the way into “If Only Given Time” which is a momentous coda to IWWCD///IOGT as it injects some symphonic majesty into the proceedings (Think A Clockwork Orange or The Shining‘s brilliant scores) until eventually devolving into some seemingly catastrophic cacophony and then relenting to deliver one last blast of divinity.
Imagine What We Could Destroy /// If Only Given Time arrives on June 17th. Pre-order yours now by heading here or here and for the latest from Vexes, follow the trail of socials by clicking here, here, or here.