The Secret Theatre - Follow Me EP
Record Label: Coercion Records
Release Date: March 30, 2008
You never know what you're going to discover on Myspace. While searching through all the spam-filled band profiles, it's rare to discover something so unique, something so out of your usual tastes, that it grasps you and fails to let go.
Enter The Secret Theatre, a local band from North Carolina's dull music scene. Their debut release, the Follow Me EP, is an amazing experience that begins with captivating violins and ambient sounds on the first track, "Bury Me, Winter Pt. I." This song sets the mood for the entire album, a brilliant clash of powerful, gentle vocals with strong drumming and mood setting bass lines. The band abandons normal song structures for the entire album and adopts more of a poetic feel throughout. The vocals threw me off at first, as it appears James Bone is attempting to hit a certain high note, but instead he keeps his voice level during the song, which creates a nice complimentary tone.
Some may be fooled into thinking that the energy doesn't increase after the climax of "Bury Me," but the next song disproves any doubts that The Secret Theatre can't deliver in energy. "Advent" keeps a electric-acoustic feel throughout, until chugging electric guitar interrupts the song's cool feel. It brings blasts of loud guitars and drums that increase rather than disrupt the song's flow. Bone's vocals reach their highest as he sings what's possibly the most emotional line of the album: "Then I let go / In a scream of sound / My eyes reach up then turn around / I've seen the sun is fading over me." The song ends in a chorus of "oh-oh's" that doesn't feel cliché at all.
"Make Your Memories Mine" shows just what The Secret Theatre do well. The band fools us into thinking a soft acoustic song will be calming us into dreams with poetic lyrics, but instead The Secret Theatre crash into a fast paced song that plays loud and true. "Bury Me, Winter Pt. II" is a beautiful ending to the album, combined with an introductory organ and almost electronic-sounding drum work that once again accelerates into a wonderful climax of Bones' soothing vocals, organs, and drums.
The Follow Me EP is something wonderful to hear considering the amount of almost indistinguishable bands that exist in the scene today. The production of the album is amazing considering it's only the band's first release. The real problem most might have are the fairly monotone vocals. Bone's vocals don't really change throughout the album, but they compliment every song, so it's really not a problem for me. Between the wonderful lyrics and the calming feel throughout, The Secret Theatre should be a band to watch for.
myspace.com/thesecrettheatre
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