Seven Against Thebes
There are many oft repeated refrains and sweeping generalizations echoing through the music world today. No one buys music anymore, they just steal it. It is beyond all doubt music sales are not what they once were in 1995 or even 2005, but there are many committed fans that still pay for the pleasure of hearing a new band or a recent release from old favorites. No one writes or plays with passion anymore. If you think that’s true, you aren’t looking or listening hard enough. One of the loudest refrains is that rock, as a genre, is as dead as Dillinger. If that has any truth behind it, let’s be grateful Seattle’s Seven Against Thebes didn’t get the memo.
Their self-titled debut, released in 2011, boasts a dozen songs covering a wide gamut of sounds and emotions. Listeners can be forgiven for wondering what they have gotten themselves into hearing the opening track, an instrumental entitled “Serpens Caput”, with its sitar presence ceding ground to Cyrus Rhodes’ dissonant electric guitar and Bruce Burgess’ muscular drumming. We hear vocalist Rusty Hoyle’s wail rising out of the mix in the opener’s final seconds as it segues into the second track. “7.A.T”, an abbreviation of the band’s name, begins life with a full tilt wall of sound overwhelming listeners before the guitar and bass falls away for the first verse. Burgess lays down a near tribal percussion stomp while Hoyle delivers the curt and aggressive lyrics with passion. The riffing has a near punk spirit and they shift gears during the chorus managing to strike an ominous note without ever overplaying their hand.
“Equilibrium” has a darkened mood during first seconds before the band hits the throttle and unleashes Cyrus Rhodes’ flamethrower lead guitar on unsuspecting listeners. Seven Against Thebes bring tremendous energy to bear on this collection and this track is no exception, but the six string contributions are coherent and never self-indulgent. Some listeners will draw parallels between this band and Seattle based rock alum like Alice in Chains, among others, but it is a superficial comparison in the end. Rusty Hoyle has a much more straight forward vocal sound while still exhibiting an elastic emotive range enlivening each lyric. The fourth track “Nemesis” is illustrative of the band’s diversity. The rhythm section of Burgess and bassist Dave Black lay down a steady groove with a light shuffle-like character for Rhodes to riff over.
The songwriting orchestrates the track’s dynamics in dramatic fashion – Seven Against Thebes understand the value of contrasting musical light and shadow with great effect and Hoyle’s voice lands in the right place to maximize its impact.
The album’s longest track, the near six and a half minute “Prey for Me”, embraces the classic fade in approach with Rhodes’ siren-like guitar braying over chaotic feedback tinged support. It is an effective and foreboding introduction. There isn’t a bigger bulldozer riff on this album – it flattens any resistance the listener can summon. It backs down when Hoyle enters the song and his vocals are laden with post-production effects never diluting its potential. It, instead, accentuates the claustrophobic aspects of the song established long before the first line. Rhodes deserves major props for never overextending his solos – they are here to, first and foremost, serve the song and ending the track the way it began underlines their writing acumen.
Rhodes takes one of his longer lead breaks on the album during the track “Feed the Furnace” but even this instrumental excursion never flirts with excess. He draws from a deep well of sound and varies his attack enough to keep listeners off balance and never quite sure of what will come next. This track is, likewise, a vocal highlight for Rusty Hoyle – the occasional passages of double tracked vocals do not mar the song but it is obvious his aforementioned ability to stretch his voice in various directions at will renders such adornments superfluous.
Staccato riffing opens the penultimate number “Suicide Note”, the album’s last number featuring vocals and lyrics, but the band soon opens the song in full. It maintains a breakneck pace throughout the recording and some key tempo shifts make it an even more intense listening experience.
Seven Against Thebes bookends the release with “Serpens Cauda” and revisits the opening track while tossing in a handful of dominant motifs from the collection for good measure. This debut release from Seattle’s Seven Against Thebes has lost none of its power eight years on from its initial release.
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Trace Whittaker
Newcastle-upon-Tyne
9/2019
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