Artist: Rosaline
Title: The Vitality Theory
Genre: Rock/ Screamo
Release Date: 20th July 2010
Label: Good Fight Music
Album Review
ROSALINE is a band out of Chicago that delivers some fresh Screamo to the scene. Part of this reason is for the excellent clean vocals laid down by Cody Lumpkin, along with backing screams from Madison Stolzer, who also handles the guitars with Ricky Bakosh. Throw in some piano by Nathan Steinheimer and the infectious drum and bass work by Matthew Hahn and Ryan Pulice and there’s some pretty unique music being thrown around. The band released its debut back in 2009 and apparently was so successful (or hounded) that they quickly planned to release their second album, ‘The Vitality Theory’, which is bigger and better than ‘Constant North’. Fans of UNDEROATH, AFI, and NORMA JEAN will probably appreciate this the most.
The best thing about ‘The Vitality Theory’ is that it is well balanced. There’s the screaming, full fury tracks such as ‘Face like Thunder’ and ‘This Place Is a Battlefield’. However, ROSALINE is for the most part extremely melodic with their latest album. ‘The Messenger, Infinite’ features some great, chugging guitar and layered vocals, every so often breaking into some more melodic guitar structure. The electronic elements from the keyboards really flesh things out and every once in a while the drums perform this technical tapping akin to bands like +44 which are much more pleasant to listen to than the standard kit beatings. ‘Model Ships’ is an extremely melodic track that comes off more like alternative rock, and Cody really gets to show his vocal range here. Stolzer gets a few screams in as well, but it is clear that Cody dominates the music here. ‘The Disasterist’ has a great progressive rock beginning and some catchy chords with some pretty good electronic samples.
There are also some hardcore chants here to make the music a bit more dynamic than the other tracks, and that fact that it is used sparingly makes it all the more precious. ‘Repeat after me!’ is the album’s sole acoustic track, trading intensity for emotion and groove. ‘Neuqua Valley Gunslinger’ has some death metal influenced vocals but also softens up in the middle for some beautiful string picked arrangements before falling back into the hard stuff. Finally, the epic ‘Recovery’ gets to show off the piano and how much atmosphere the instrument adds to the music. Sure it can get pretty loud from the guitars and drums crashing against each other, but the thickness of the track basically wears off and then the piano is the only thing playing, backed by some sampling and a few industrial beats till it eventually fades out. The effect is pretty damned impressive.
Fans should be really excited for ROSALINE’s second effort. With a new, more dynamic musical direction the band is ten times stronger than they were a year ago. Hopefully they won’t lose their fire or inspirations to keep creating good music quickly. There’s a whole new level of Screamo to be discovered, and ‘The Vitality Theory’ brings the hammer down!
Tracklist
01. The Messenger, Infinite (3:29)
02. London Lost Its Fog (4:05)
03. Model Ships (3:28)
04. The Disasterist (2:03)
05. Face Like Thunder (3:45)
06. It’s Just Better For Everyone (4:59)
07. Repeat After Me! (3:41)
08. This Place Is A Battlefield (3:49)
09. Concrete Teeth (3:48)
10. Neuqua Valley Gunslinger (4:27)
11. Recovery (10:47)
Line-up
Madison Stolzer - Guitar, Vocals, Lyrics
Cody Lumpkin - Lead Vocal
Ricky Bakosh - Guitar
Matthew Hahn - Drums, Percussion
Ryan Pulice - Bass
Nathan Steinheimer - Keyboards, Programming, Piano
Website
http://www.myspace.com/rosaline
Cover Picture
Rating
Sound: 8
Music: 9
Total: 8.5 / 10
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