Flashback CD Review #24 - Smile Empty Soul - Anxiety

This review was written for the now gone Rock is Life.com website in 2005.

Smile Empty Soul

Anxiety

Lava Records - 2005

http://www.smileemptysoul.com

What's The 4-1-1?

The rock trio returns to follow up their gold self-titled debut album with 15 new musical selections.

Genre

Rock / Punk Rock / Grunge

The Good

The band mixes a traditional rock and roll sound with some punk rock and even grunge influences. The trio format serves the band well since they sound rather exceptionally tight as a unit. They've got some excellent songs here, and they draw from a variety of sources to creat that material.

Sean Danielson, the guitarist/vocalist, has a definitive outlook for crafting the lyrics. They are mostly drawn from a darkly critical viewpoint, particularly on songs dealing with some modern day issues. He sings "Proud To Be" from the angle of a belligerently ignorant redneck following the current state of thinking in the country. He also criticizes the current trend of politicians using the issue of religious faith as a political tool in the song "God's Army." The song is a slow, methodical song delivered with an understated, yet burning intensity in the vocals. It's not a one-note point of view in the music though. "Never Again" is an excellent rock track with lyrics that look to trying to view life in a more upbeat manner.

The best songs on the CD are the flat-out rock track "Saturday", "Holes" and the track the deals (at least to my ear) with the issue of "cutting" called "Self-Inflicted". The song is my favorite on the album. It rocks hard, but obviously deals with some dark issues. With lyrics like "I cut myself just to feel the pain" and "I'm going down and no one can save me", the song won't be the theme to any high school proms. But if you want a song that accomplishes the task of confronting an issue yet still comes out as a great rock song, this track is a pretty good one to listen to.

The Bad

The songs I didn't much care for struck me as just kind of flat to my ears. I just didn't find much to say about songs like "Fight of a Suburban Couple", "Refill Me" and "Not Alright".

The Verdict

I'm not normally a fan of anything resembling punk rock, whether the 70's version or the modern version of what's considered punk music. I think Green Day has changed that opinion a bit with their American Idiot album, but I found that if they take that influence and combine it with the more traditional hard rock song, no matter how dark the lyrical content, a band can turn out a pretty fine collection of tunes. Smile Empty Soul did that here. They use influences ranging from Alice in Chains, Queens of the Stone Age, At The Drive In and more. They take those, mix in their own spin on things and come up with an album that should continue to expand the fan base they created from their first album.

Did You Know?

Anxiety was recorded at the Suburbal Hell studio in Saugus, California.

Smile Empty Soul has toured with the likes of Jane's Addiction, Puddle of Mudd, Deftones and Seether.

Drummer Dominic Weir is new to the group. He replaced the long time drummer Derek Gledhill, who parted with the group following the conclusion of the tour for the first CD.

Rating: 4 out of 5