Awake and Alert

It’s always a much coveted status to be a band with a distinct voice. And amid a sea of soundalikes, it’s certainly no easy task. However, it’s always easy to have a voice that no one at all can relate to. The difficult part is still remaining gripping to the audience. It’s a fine line to walk, and Awake and Alert do their damndest to walk it through their twelve song debut, Devil in a Lambskin Suit.

To that end, the band’s name is about as appropriate as can be. They seem to be incredibly conscious of that goal and they’re charging through proving that they can do it. The promo material goes so far as to list the genres they explore, and their MySpace page shows bands that each individual member of the band is listening to, running the gamut. It all seems to be suggestive of some ultimate goal to both give themselves credibility while at the same time showing that they pull from everyone and everywhere to create the best damn rock sound anyone has ever heard. Of course, the question becomes whether or not they succeed.

The short answer is, well, sort of. This band is most definitely skilled and they work together quite well. In fact, it’s probably one of the tighter bands I’ve heard in recent memory. Blake Kimball is a rock solid guitar player who has a great command of many different textures and crafts strong melodies to carry songs, Spencer Reed is most servicable on bass, and Tony Reed is one of the more distinct drummers to come to rock as well, doing everything in his power to avoid the definitive hi hat, snare, bass drum riff that has come to define rock. Anchoring all this is Maya Peart’s (who also accompanies Blake’s guitar lines with keyboards) hauntingly fragile voice, which ultimately gives the band its distinct voice in the end.

Overall the album has a somber introspective tone. The great feat is that they show a good amount of technical prowess on their respective instruments and still do a solid job of maintaining the mood of the album on the whole. There’s a lot to admire in the band, and while I said they do work well together, I often get the sinking suspicion that they’re not often playing together.

The playing is strong, and while there is Maya’s voice and a resoundingly tight band, each song still has a sense that it’s just nothing new. With an overall bend toward abrasive arena rock, songs like “Vows” sound immediately familiar with the steady and punchy melody that kicks into grungy distortion right when you expect it to. Most of the album has this feel of being solidly and efficiently predictable. Even the lyrics are filled with clincher lines like “Autumn of the Heavens,” “We are what we become,” and other clichés that show rock for the profound art form it really is. A lot of these efforts feel incredibly labored, and most of the more natural points come in the form of instrumental interludes where everyone gets into a good moody groove that is epitomized on the instrumental track “Hollow Bodies,” showing a band that is better at exploring musical ideas rather than constructing songs, as that aspect is relatively unoriginal.

There’s a lot to like about Awake and Alert’s first outing. It’s an incredibly tight band. They are clearly well versed in grandiose arena rock and the recording, while a little stilted during Blake’s solo spots, is overall solid and enjoyable. However, this band sounds like it’s too enamored with trying to become another great epic voice in rock, and its goal should simply be to play music. If they did, perhaps we’d get one memorable mood piece. As it is, though, they may be trying a little too hard.

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