Foreknown

Item: Calm Seas Don't Make Sailors
Author: Evan Stanek

Calm Seas Don't Make Sailors

(2005)

Reviewed by Evan Stanek

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Label Blood & Ink RecordsDecapolisJune 2005

hardcore metalcore post-hardcore

I first got wind of foreknown after meeting one of the guys in a Christian book store in their hometown Duluth, MN a little over a year. I checked out their stuff, and the songs were pretty standard metalcore with some interesting guitar work here and there, some chunky breakdowns, and coarse screaming vocals. But I was a little annoyed by the poor production quality and by the tired lyrical themes about knives and bleedings and dying. What I heard needed a lot of development. Nevertheless, I kept a loose interest in the band and was a bit anxious to hear what this fledgling band could do with a label to back up some stronger recordings. In summary, they dropped the blood and guts lyrics and musically improved to put together a record that is altogether a nice surprise.

There is a short intro called "In the Beginning" which just has a couple of vocal lines at the end and a nice melodic guitar line. This minute-long segment sounds quite a bit like Hopesfall's older stuff. This trend comes through at other times but doesn't necessarily define their sound through the entire album. Instead, the first song departs seamlessly into the lyrically bold and musically interesting "Through Thick and Thin." This song as a whole is a good measuring stick for determining whether or not you will like this band, as it offers a good dose of double bass pedal, some nice quick metal leads, a few breakdowns, tempo changes and a short session of spoken echoes. A pair of headphones reveals some nice stereo interaction and also a smooth coating of tastefully done production. "This Ain't no Summer Vacation" starts of with a wallowing bass line, before getting to usual business with a slower start before picking up with faster tempo and varied screaming. The first semblances of melody vocally come with "Weapon of Choice" which also happens to be one of the band's more recent and favorite songs. I agree, this is their best foot-forward (although the sparse singing was a bit off-key) and definitely alludes back to the Hopesfall feel I first heard in the intro track. For variety, "Speechless" has some light keyboard and drum machine mixed with a backward-looped eerie quote going in the back amidst some horror-movie screams and of course lead screams over the top. Musically the album finishes off in typical form with plenty of pleasing moments with the best being the epic "No Guns, No Roses, Just Axl" featuring some nice twinkly guitar parts amidst the storms of chugs and roars.

Foreknown isn't afraid to take on the label of a Christian band, and this theme comes through either directly ("thick and thin" and "weapon of choice") or in the morals encouraged by their songs ("the barrel of a gun" and "most likely to succeed"). I appreciated the song "Manhood" for its musings on what it truly means to come to maturity, not as our society defines it in loss of innocence, but instead in shedding more of ourselves and depending on something above us.

I grew up near Duluth, Minnesota. Believe me, its no small feat for a band like this to come from that frozen wasteland. Seriously, the scene there is dead and to make it more difficult, its too cold most of the time to play in your garage so you either need enough money to rent practice space, or one of the guys in the band has to live at home and have cool enough parents that will let them scream and breakdown in the house to their heart's content. It seems they found a way to make it work. Play on, play on.

2/4