[Now that April Fools is over, I feel like I need to put a disclaimer here. This is a joke. Not true. The album is actually terrible. Thanks for reading. - Ed.]
Rarely do we get a band in metal as notorious as Attack Aattack! People all over the internet cursing their name every chance they get. Incorrectly, might I add. I mean, people are out there misspelling their name all over the place. LOOK AT THE ALBUM COVER, PEOPLE. It’s Attack Aattack!, not Attack Attack! But I digress…
If you somehow aren’t aware of Attack Aattack! yet, they are a fusion metal band that takes elements of death metal, techno, pop, and hardcore. Attack Aattack are the unsung heroes of metal, and they will one day be cited as influential to the expansion of metal into other uncharted territory. To move forward, we need to experiment, and Attack Aattack! are not afraid to do just that.
I suppose I understand all the hatred that this band gets. Whenever someone comes along and pushes the boundaries of the metal genre to it’s limits and challenges the way we think about music, we tend to feel threatened. The same thing happened in the 80s when Metallica invented thrash metal and in the 90s when the Rage Against The Machine cover band Limp Bizkit hit it big. Haters gonna hate, sitting there in their computer chairs and drinking on their Haterade. Straying from the path is grounds for death. They can’t seem to take it when younger bands do it better.
For example, people bash Attack Aattack! for several different reasons, which are all hypocritical and utterly full of elitist bullshit. Attack Aattack! makes liberal use of autotune throughout the album during the tuneful choruses, and yet Cynic‘s Paul Masvidal gets high and mumbles through some autotune and everyone praises them as Gods of progressive metal. Cynic’s use of autotune is an epic fail anyway. Paul couldn’t write a catchy vocal hook to save his life.
Attack Aattack! however, does pop metal better than Faith No More and Devin Townsend combined, but with wholesome Christian lyrics such as
Now you have taught me
how to live by grace,
and I will do this until my dying day.
how could I ever fall away from you?
You taught me how to live like christ,
and how to show my face in the worst of times,
and all I can say is thank you.
Attack Aattack! even reach out to the kids with cleverly named tracks featuring hip and nostalgic pop culture references of years past, including “The People’s Elbow”, “Kickin’ Wing, Animal Doctor”, and “Stick Stickly”, the album’s dominating first single.
Attack Aattack! are also brutal as fuck. I’d imagine being at an Attack Aattack show would be like giving a boatload of E, glowsticks, and a laser light show at a Slayer show. I practically moshed by myself in my seat while listening to this album and it’s many many many many crushing breakdowns. They captivate the listener with a visceral and primal energy so fierce that one cannot help but swing their arms and legs around with complete disregard of the safety of the others around you. It’s that good.
Honestly, I don’t know what else I can tell you that will convince you to give Someday Came Suddenly a proper listen. It’s a modern musical marvel that is needlessly swept under the rug and continues to go misunderstood. If only people would start listening up and hearing the avant-garde experimentation and progression going on in this album…
Attack Aattack’s Someday Came Suddenly gets:
5/5!
- JR
