| Description: | From the cover of Alternative Press to a supporting slot on Linkin Park's 2008 North American arena tour, Chiodos has knocked the music world on its collective ear with the arrival of Bone Palace Ballet (Equal Vision Records). With a stunning #5 Billboard debut last September, the sophomore disc by the cutting edge Michigan sextet affirms what loyal devotees of the group have known all along: Chiodos is inexorable.
Touted by the aforementioned Alternative Press as both "an arresting piece of post-modern musical art" and "a frighteningly mighty album of exhilarating musicianship and inspired lyrical introspection that plays out like an evening at some glorious experimental-hardcore cabaret," Chiodos' dramatic charms are on full display with the lush, keenly orchestrated Bone Palace Ballet.
Be it the goth-tinged wallop of first single and video "Lexington (Joey Pea-Pot with a Monkey Face)" or the roaring "Bulls Make Money, Bears Make Money, Pigs Get Slaughtered," the sextet--consisting of vocalist Craig Owens, bassist Matt Goddard, keyboardist/vocalist Brad Bell, drummer Derrick Frost and guitarists Jason Hale and Pat McManaman--makes brilliant post-hardcore music that sounds innovative and feels the pain of everyone.
But that's not to say the follow up to 2005's fan-cherished 200,000-selling All's Well That Ends Well came effortlessly. "We were feeling pressure," keyboardist Brad Bell explains. "We went into the studio with tons of song ideas, but some of the songs we had weren't entirely completed. And that was a challenge and it was a little bit intimidating." "There was one point where we didn't keep one of the deadlines we had been given, and a lot of ?What ifs' started to bubble up," Goddard concedes. "I think every band, no matter who they are, is afraid of that second record. It can make or break you. So we couldn't help but feel nervous." |