Across their near twenty-five year career, The Appleseed Cast has cemented themselves as a band that can do no wrong. Their work has consistently exceeded expectations, pushing their songwriting, instrumental performances, and inventive production to the limit with each release.
But what’s sometimes difficult to remember is just how quickly they jumped to that level, as seen by their 2000 full-length Mare Vitalis, a masterwork that demonstrates the group’s ability to blend emo expressiveness and post-rock atmospherics, seasoned with some bursts of post-hardcore to taste.
Like many other emo fans my age, I was first exposed to The Appleseed Cast through the Deep Elm compilation Emo Is Awesome, Emo Is Evil, Vol. 1. This compilation lived in my Discman at various times, including one week spent at my grandparents’ house, where a bout of insomnia overtook me each night. I would spend each night listening to that compilation while wrestling with sleeplessness on the couch in their basement.
The Appleseed Cast had two songs on this compilation—”Reaction” from Low Level Owl, and “Forever Longing the Golden Sunsets” from this release. The latter became one of my favorite tracks on the collection, but as I started collecting vinyl, this album, in particular, became too pricey to be worthwhile. For a while, Low Level Owl served as a standalone monument symbolizing my love of the Appleseed Cast, but it wasn’t the same. While that massive double album is certainly the group’s magnum opus, their body of work is too significant to be reduced to one project (or two, if you want to get pedantic). I’ve been slowly adding to the Appleseed section of my collection, but this album has remained elusive.
Until this recent German repress, with updated artwork and packaging (the heart is embossed!). A good friend offered to buy a few copies for a few other friends to diminish the shipping costs, and my collection is all the richer for it.
It’s hard to remember a time when The Appleseed Cast wasn’t working in their own shadow. Low Level Owl was an absolutely massive statement—one that has hovered like a specter over everything they’ve done since. But that monolith wasn’t even imagined when Mare Vitalis was released. Instead, they were just another fledgling emo band trying to differentiate themselves from the throngs of other acts paying tribute at the altar of Sunny Day Real Estate. End of the Ring Wars was a satisfactory debut, but did little to forecast their future as one of the most consistent and enduring acts in the scene.
In comparison, Mare Vitalis is an atom bomb. While plenty of acts were paring back punk and hardcore’s sonic bombast with sections of arpeggiated clean guitars, plaintive lyrics, and emotive vocals, Mare Vitalis set The Appleseed Cast apart from the pack in a major way. In many ways, the record moves like a post rock album (though to a much less severe degree than Low Level Owl). A few of the tracks are completely instrumental, though the strength of their composition is of such a degree that you almost don’t notice, as the instrumental melodies are just as lyrical as the sung songs.
While “Forever Longing…” is the standout track, it’s probably more to do with familiarity than anything. Almost any of these tracks could have taken its place on the compilation and drawn just as much attention (barring of course the experimental twelve-minute “bonus” track that closes out the vinyl edition). “…And Nothing Less” in particular is just as strong, building its atmosphere out of layers of cascading guitars and inventive rhythm work, Chris Crisci’s voice buried in the mix like another color in the sonic palette.
But what truly sets this album apart is its ability to manipulate the strokes of sonic color to convey a wide range of emotions. This is often referred to as a dark album, and it may be that: opening track “The Immortal Soul of Mundo Cani” sounds like it could be the hushed intro of a Cult of Luna track. “Poseidon” is similarly brooding, meandering in a minor key. But where so many emo bands get stuck in their grief and angst, there are true moments of joy in this record. Few musical moments sound as uplifting to me as the bursting chorus of “Forever Longing…” These life-affirming moments hold tight in the darkness of this record like an anchor in choppy seas, without ever feeling emotionally incompatible.
Across the annals of music history, an awful lot of albums are said to show promise: records that demonstrate the potential of a great career, whether that potential is fulfilled or not. Mare Vitalis is rare in that it not only shows that potential, but it also does a pretty good job of fulfilling it on its own. While their later albums would fully cement their legacy, this record created the sound that would go on to influence bands like Gates, Moving Mountains, and so many more. This record took them from a band paying tribute to emo heroes to emo heroes in their own right.