Last year at Audiofeed, I accidentally found myself spending an awful lot of time near the American Arson merch table. They were situated in the shade right between the main stage and the impromptu stage where many of my friends (and my own projects) had claimed slots, and so as I killed time between sets, I talked a fair amount with Jesse and Evan, the only two members of American Arson.
When the time came for their set, they had already described their sound to me, but descriptions alone could not have prepared me for the blistering onslaught of hardcore energy, lush walls of sound, intricate compositions, and singalong choruses—pulled off by two people using a combination of live loops and samples.
But as their recent full length proves, their appeal goes far beyond the spectacle of watching them build these songs live. A Line in the Sand captures every single element that drew my ear to them in the first place—both musically and personally.
A Line in the Sand is an absolutely massive statement—not just in the way that they combine different musical influences, but ideologically.
Evan Baker’s voice alternates between half-screamed yelps to furious spoken word roaring, soaring melody lines, recounting lyrics denouncing political polarization, racism, and apathy and crying out in religious devotion. His guitars shift from post rock atmospheres to huge arena rock bursts to frantic punk riffs, dancing around synthesizers.
Jesse Gentry’s drumming is similarly mercurial, pushing with two-stepping hardcore urgency, providing a tempo for a military march, and even starting a couple dance parties. His a similar versatility of Thrice’s Riley Breckenridge (and I don’t just say that because he played a Thrice cover set with me at last year’s Bloodline Fest).
But the common thread in all of the genre hopping and sonic fusion is Baker’s ability to craft a huge, anthemic chorus (he once told me he just can’t not write a chorus). Because even at their heaviest, most frantic, or most experimental, most of these songs could have a shot at becoming radio hits. “Radio rock” is often tossed around as a pejorative, but only because of the type of lazy, cliché songs that often fill the airways. There may be a superficial sonic similarity (likely due to the gruffness of Evan’s voice), but this is the type of music that actually should make it onto the radio.
Across thirty-eight minutes, there isn’t a single dull moment here. “The End” opens the record with four lines, repeated twice over a brooding atmosphere and ominous drum march. The verses of “Drop Your Daggers” explode with a brutal D-beat and hardcore bark before burning with a huge singalong chorus. “Unbreakable” is the undeniable hit, with nearly four times the plays as the next most popular song on Spotify, and it’s easy to hear why: no other song hits the ratio of punk energy to heartfelt catharsis quite as immediately as this track. If anyone doubted their punk cred after the hit, “Stay True” bursts in with a crew-ready shoutalong to remind you of their roots.
After an A-side filled with rock and roll bombast, “The Water Will Rise” opens the B-side slowly, casting a spotlight on the atmospheres that have run beneath the heaviest moments “Let Conviction Grow” points a finger at how numb we’ve grown to the evils of the world while offering the most sonically diverse track on the album, shifting from a spoken word intro to one of their patented huge choruses, ending with the most crushingly heavy moment on the record. But if the album feels dour to you, closer “The King Is Alive” breaks through the gloom with a jubilant exuberance. Synth strings and woodwinds join the major key electric guitar strums and Evan’s slam-poetry lyrics (my cousin asked if this song was Listener).
Through all of the insanity of COVID, I had somehow completely missed the release of this album (which coincided with the original date of this year’s Audiofeed) until last week. But having finally discovered it (and tracked down a vinyl copy, which took some doing—Facedown’s website sold out very quickly), this album is going to get plenty of repeat listens.
Great job, Evan and Jesse. Let’s hang out when it’s safe.