The Blank Theory's
newest album, Beyond the Calm of the Corridor, is the album that we're assuming
is going to put this band on the map. The hard rock crystal ball reveals shots of pierced,
tattooed, hair-gelled teenagers standing outside the MTV studios on Broadway and 42nd
Street in New York City, just waiting to get a glimpse of their new heroes. This band is
going straight to the top. Review staffs know it, radio deejays and program directors know
it, label representatives know it, and most of all, The Blank Theory knows it. What no one
ever bothered to stop and ask was, "Why?"
Pop Beyond the Calm of the Corridor into the disc player and behold: this band
has got it together. Tight, acidic vocals top that quick chainsaw guitar we've come to
recognize from bands like Disturbed (also from Chicago), Orgy, Vast, and Stabbing
Westward. What Blank Theory lacks, however, are the complicated arrangements of bands like
Tool or System of a Down (think, "Toxicity"); the crazy vocals of Disturbed
(think "Down with the Sickness"); the atmospherics of a band like Vast (think
"Touched"); and the blatant, hateful passion of a band like Stabbing Westward.
What we get instead from The Blank Theory, is a few good singles. On "Addicted,"
The Smashing Pumpkins' James Iha, who also produced the album, plays guest guitar. The
song is a head banger: dynamic, somewhat atmospheric, with a powerful chorus. The song is
the stand-out single on the album. It is less derivative than "Killing Me."
which is repetitive compared to even such radio-friendly hits as Nickelback's "This
is How You Remind Me."
Perhaps not a single, but also a stand-out track on the album, is "Invisible,"
an industrial romp that seems best suited for one of Blank Theory's sold-out shows at the
Metro. Songs like "Thicker" and "Broken," upon first listen sound
spectacular, but let not your ears be tricked by good production. The Blank Theory spent a
while in New York City recording with Iha and Fountains of Wayne's Adam Schlesinger
producing. Schlesinger, for all his wonderful work with his former bands Fountains of
Wayne and Ivy, also produced the Verve Pipe's latest attempt. Clearly good sound
production and "radio-friendly" sound didn't do them much good.
"Recluse," "Corporation," and "Fear of God," are songs that,
toward the end of the album, tend to grate more on your sleepy nerves than please.
Beyond the Calm of the Corridor wraps up with the sleeper, "Martyr,"
which holds off on the rock, building a la Rage Against the Machine into a complicated and
much-welcome finale that showcases the best the band has to offer in rhythm, dynamics, and
passion. The song ends mid-sentence, and the album is over.
It can't go without mention that The Blank Theory covers Portishead's "Sour
Times," on this album. The cover is so uninspired - it doesn't add anything to the
original recording and, in fact, almost takes away from it - that it is hardly worth
mentioning. But the mere fact that this band wants so badly to reproduce and sing with
emotion and feeling a song like "Sour Times," sums up what Beyond the Calm
of the Corridor seems to represent: a band with the talent and connections to hit the
big time. But when you lack the overall passion - those chord changes and drawn-out
hard-rock choruses that are the core of heavy metal and hard rock, the reason we all close
our eyes, tighten our fists and sing along - you've got to go back to the drawing board,
forget about influences, competition and critics, and just rock. Blank Theory are almost
there. Almost.
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