In Remembrance - We’ll Always Have The Memories
My first impression of the band In Remembrance was at a The Acacia Strain show in Revere, MA that had an absurd amount of bands playing. Surrounded by bands playing drop-whatever breakdowns, I remember how much In Remembrance stood out and how much I enjoyed them. Fast-forward about a half a year, and I ran into a member of In Remembrance at a The Neon Hookers show in New Hampshire. We chatted for a bit, and I couldn’t help but wonder if they had any CDs out. Kris Mission (Rock Vegas Records) came up to me at a show in early 2007 and said, “Hey, do you have the new In Remembrance album?” An hour later, I was blasting We’ll Always Have The Memories in my room. The RA knocked on the door and yelled at me to turn it down. How could I resist this album?
I somehow don’t remember In Remembrance having the intensity that this album has. It’s been a year since I saw them, and the progression the band has made since then to now feels astonishing. The intro to “Dead Ends” is golden, the pace fast and greatly executed, the backup vocals perfectly set up, and the entire sound feels just epic. The vocals yelling, “Nothing gold will ever stay,” and “When it’s all said and done, I will never look back. When it all comes undone, nothing will be left of me,” are just chilling to listen to. Breakdowns during “Tell Them I’m Sorry” and “Goin’ Nowhere” take a departure from the normal chugging-open-noted breakdown I saw so much in that first evening I saw In Remembrance.
Essentially, In Remembrance takes a The Hope Conspiracy feel and instills their own emotions, energy, and skills to produce an extremely powerful sound. This comes out the most in “The Damned,” which brings out the most intense in verses, breakdowns, gang chants, and just sheer powerful from In Remembrance. This song ties as my favorite from the album along with the CD opener “Dead Ends.” Ironically, both of these are now on their Myspace for your listening pleasure.
“King Of Hearts” brings a more emotive side to the band. “Every promise that we made came straight through my heart.” A more chugging-along type breakdown comes along straight after that, but then, a soft break from the normal pace comes. A very surreal, epic feeling comes from this, and then the regular music comes back, incorporating a guitar line from the soft part so it all ties in very nicely. This is another spot that I get chills. It’s like ones of those moments in a live show where you could swear that things are just extremely epic and eerie (Bane’s ending to “Swan Song” at the 10th Anniversary show in Worcester is a perfect example of this). The softness of the ending carries into the title track of the album. Soft piano breaks up the feedback in the beginning and vanished within a minute.
The closing track “Satisfaction of Knowing” is a perfect way to end this CD. Many breakdowns are through this whole song. At times, it feels like breakdowns lead into breakdowns and are supplemented by a catchy verse that sets up another breakdown. That feeling disappeared about 2 1/2 minutes into the song, and then the entire song goes quiet. It builds up again with an eerie recording dubbed over a soft outro that continues until the finish of the CD.
There are a lot of places I could go with this review, and all of them would come back to one fact: I extremely enjoyed this record. It has climbed up my listens on Last.FM like crazy since I got the album, and I anticipate it will keep doing so for quite a while. Fans of The Hope Conspiracy or even bands like The Suicide File or Guns Up! should not overlook this release. Rock Vegas Records has continually impressed me with their line-up, and In Remembrance is another gem to their roster.
TRACK LIST:
01. Dead Ends
02. Tell Them I’m Sorry
03. For What It’s Worth
04. Goin’ Nowhere
05. The Damned
06. Thrown Away
07. King Of Hearts
08. We’ll Always Have The Memories
09. Satisfaction Of Knowing
