The Trades - Music Review: The Black Maria, "Lead Us To Reason"

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ARTICLE

Music Review: The Black Maria, "Lead Us To Reason"
by David Kerschner
Published: June 15, 2005

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Release Date: January 25, 2005
Label: Victory Records
Grade: D-

Consisting of former members of Grade, Zyon, and New Day Rising, The Black Maria formed in 2002. Signed by Victory Records in 2004, Lead Us To Reason is the bands debut full length. Based upon the past individual success of The Black Maria’s members have had and their knowledge and experience within the music industry, one would expect a much more solid album than Lead Us To Reason ultimately provides.

The Black Maria Is:
Chris Grey-Vocals
Kyle Bishop-Guitar, Vocals
Mike De Eyre-Bass, Keyboards
Alan Nacinovic-Guitar
Derek Petrella-Drums

Perhaps the biggest problem plaguing Lead Us To Reason is its consistency. While some songs on the album are catchy and work at parts, very few songs on the album are solid all the way through. Many songs on the album, such as "Sirens", follow a formula of fast and driving riffs to open the song only to fade into a lackluster and ultimately bad verse that effectively kills anything the song had going for it. Other songs, such as "Betrayal", feature lyrically weak verses with sometimes catchy but more often derivative and bland choruses.

Production is also a problem that is evident several times throughout Lead Us To Reason. Throughout the album, Gray’s vocals sound weak and forced at times while the music behind him is often muddy and improperly leveled.. Part of this can be blamed solely on poor production techniques, but most of the problems exist due to the band’s incorporation of keyboards into their sound. This addition is very rarely used to actually progress the music and often just plays simple effects which are, in the end, more of an annoyance rather than a finishing touch used to refine the music.

Lead Us To Reason isn’t without its good points, however, although they are few and far between. Songs such as "Our Commitments A Sickness" and "The Distance From The Bottom" are relatively strong and The Black Maria does make efforts to provide musical diversity throughout the disc. Ultimately though, there are just too many weak songs for me to recommend purchasing this CD.