Alkaline Trio
Crimson

Submitted by: T.W. Arrighi

The Alkaline Trio, has long been known for their satanic twist on pop-punk that has made them a uniqe band in a cesspool of meaningless artists. This unique sound has drawn many praise from fellow musicians such as Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong. Crimson does not stray from this reputation at all, as a matter of fact it thickens it. Matt Skiba and Dan Andriano's mastery of the "dark side" of life was able to bring such characters like Charles Manson and the West Memphis Three to life through their lyrics. Overall, from start to finish this album is iron clad with the makings of a amazingly commercial and promotable product, but surprisingly the album along with the band has remained a cult hit.

The album starts with the soft melodies of a soothing piano which serves as the intro to the song Time to Waste. This track is a crusading song that sets the catchy and high distorted tone that is carried out in most of the album. The next two tracks are interestingly composed and polished songs, with the most intriguing being a song called Prevent This Tragedy in which Dan Andriano's Elvis Costello, mellow sounding voice comes with a Ballad about the West Memphis Three. The WM3 were a group of young teens convicted of a vicious crime they did not commit, based only on the fact that they listen to heavy metal music and read Steven King books. Following this ballad of injustice is another, more mythical song sung by Skiba called Your Neck. Although the true meaning of the song is unknown, it is quite plain to see a mythical story of vampire like desires breeding from him through his lyrics. When the blood-drenched lyrics of Your Neck come to an end Andriano comes in with the most personal ballad on the album called Smoke. This song details Andriano's struggle with giving up smoking, and ties in thoughtful lyrics and big hooks to draw the listener in. The next two songs Back to Hell and Burn come from the same mold of hard rocking distorted punk that has a flavor all its own. Back to Hell was praised by Billie Joe Armstrong as one of this generations punk anthems and Burn also found itself being the trio's latest single. The pattern of music stays constant until the soft rocking song Mercy Me which eventually paves the path for one of the deeper songs on the album called Sadie. This is a song about Sadie Glutz of the Manson family, truly there is no need for detail because the lyrics of the song says it all. The darkness returns for the final song which is a duet with Skiba and Andriano called Settle for Satin, a song that gives a cynical look on life...How fitting.

In conclusion, this album is a great fit for music lovers of all ages especially those who are interested in lyrics. I would especially recommend this album to fans of bands such as Green Day, The Living End, and Weezer. Much of what Crimson has to offer in unconventional to what their previous albums featured. The new polished sound came under a lot of scrutiny by fans and was one of the reasons for its somewhat disappointing amount of play it got on TV and radio. However I urge you to disregard all that useless criticism and buy the album. Alkaline Trio is an amazing band with amazing talent to make therapeutic pop-punk music using writing techniques you would think were used by Cradle of Filth. Crimson to me has not reached its potential and down the line when the Trio makes more albums and become more popular, hopefully this album will resurface and become as treasured as it ought to be.