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These Arms Are Snakes

Easter
2006
Jade Tree

These Arms Are Snakes - Easter (Cover Artwork)

Review by: elliot
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Published on October 31st 2006

It’s always great to see people step out of the shadows of their former bands. These Arms Are Snakes bassist Brian Cook spent years playing in mathcore pioneers Botch, but after the initial rush of people judging his new band by the standards of his old band, the time has come for those comparisons to be squashed for good. Not even operating in a similar vein as Botch, their objective is to create something original and new. Didn’t bands forget how to do that years ago?

Of course, These Arms Are Snakes owe debts to noise rock bands that have come before them, such as Drive Like Jehu, but what they really excel at is taking those influences and melding them into a sound that is truly exciting. No song on Easter is a better example of their confidence than the opener, “Mescaline Eyes.” Like a suave ladies' man on the prowl, the song swaggers into your brain with some downright viciously danceable riffing, keeping the energy up for nearly five minutes. A big strength that These Arms Are Snakes have is their ability to have disco-influenced beats without sounding like a Gang of Four rip-off, as so many bands do today. They have enough sensibility to know that if you’re going to put rhythms like that in your songs, you need to offer the listener an extra bonus on top of it. And they do that in spades. Guitarist Ryan Frederiksen assaults the listener with lots of hammer-on riffs that are always so perfectly crafted to fit what Brian Cook is putting down under him. Occasionally switching to a distorted organ only adds to their variety, as they never go over the top with it.

Also stepping out of his own shadow from Kill Sadie, Steve Snere has upped his worth in These Arms Are Snakes by turning in his best performance yet. For a vocalist that doesn’t play an instrument, Snere plays the biggest role he possibly can. He seems to have a highly educated understanding of how to put vocals to the sometimes challenging songs that his band writes. Only sporadically does he do a full-on scream, and when he does, it’s electric. His favored style is switching from a blistering yell in the intense parts to a drunken but determined snarl in the subdued parts. This works really well, especially when it’s delivering the best lyrics Snere has written so far, providing another unique aspect of their package.

These Arms Are Snakes deserve to be one of the biggest bands in the world. Despite their tendencies to push the noise element of their sound to the extreme, their songs remain relentlessly catchy and always memorable. Easter is by far the best recording they’ve done, both sonically and musically. It’s going to be hard for them to ever top this, but with how much they’ve grown since their first EP, they might just surprise us all again.

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Posted by elliot on 2006-11-02 09:18:01

it means you guys are afraid of sex!

Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, November 2, 2006 at 3:58 AM (EST)
My Score:

Riding the Grape Dragon is a slap to the chin alright. The snakes'best song Subtle Body is on Easter.

Barkley

Posted by Kursk on 2006-11-02 00:06:52
My Score:

I haven't heard all of this but what I have heard I really like.

My favorite song by TAAS is still "Riding the Grape Dragon" though

Posted by eyeslikebombs on 2006-11-01 21:23:01

What does this actually mean?

I don't know, but I'm incredibly creeped out.

Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, November 1, 2006 at 4:58 PM (EST)

Like a suave ladies' man on the prowl, the song swaggers into your brain with some downright viciously danceable riffing, keeping the energy up for nearly five minutes.

What does this actually mean?

Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, October 31, 2006 at 8:39 PM (EST)
My Score:

Scott's arms are fat !

Posted by elliot on 2006-10-31 18:45:07

i think they do sound like jehu in certain parts, and that they also do jesus lizard-y parts. sorry i didn't mention both bands.

and they definitely throw in dancy beats a lot. maybe not as much as the rapture, but it's there.

Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, October 31, 2006 at 5:34 PM (EST)
My Score:

I saw this band open for thrice and despite that fact that i had never heard anything by them, they were by far the most entertaining live band i've seen.

Steve has incredible stage presence.

score is for album

Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, October 31, 2006 at 4:25 PM (EST)
My Score:

I really hate to say this, but I don't know where half of the comparissons in this review come from.

If you're gonna mention a noise-rock band that influenced TAAS, then you mention The Jesus Lizard. I like Jehu just as much as the next, but I don't see the connection. Disco? I don't hear anything like it on this thing. Definitely techno/electronic elements, but not disco (and yes, I know techno came from disco, but at this point that's like saying FalloutBoy is a descendent of blues).

Strong album, and it's much more cohesive than the first one. Great live band too.

Posted by ihatejones on 2006-10-31 15:56:09
My Score:

This album's so much more boring than their last, which didn't have as good a sound as their first EP

Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, October 31, 2006 at 2:04 PM (EST)

I miss Harkonen. Anyone else?

Posted by recordtheory on 2006-10-31 12:58:03
My Score:

I love this album. Jade Tree '06 baby!

Posted by pwfanatic on 2006-10-31 10:18:05

i love this album but i wouldn't say its relentless catchy. i think their other material was much catchier than this, but with that said, this shit blows their old shit out of the water live. then again...anything these guys do live blows all shit out of the water.

Posted by insinceredave on 2006-10-31 08:19:55
My Score:

Good review. The record does flow a lot a better than their last effort.

Posted by Archangel on 2006-10-31 02:22:36

Push it like a push pin, push it till it gets in!

Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, October 31, 2006 at 2:19 AM (EST)

totally agree about the first album. first 6 songs were killer, last ones were kinda lame.

Posted by SilentStorms on 2006-10-31 01:51:27
My Score:

I agree with the last Kenjamin's comments, but remember the Harkonen split ... oh my god best TAAS ever. Looking forward to hearing this!

Posted by kenjamin on 2006-10-31 01:39:54

bummer.

Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, October 31, 2006 at 1:19 AM (EST)

kenjamin,

you'll probably feel the same way

Posted by kenjamin on 2006-10-31 01:15:36

My complaint with the last record was that the first few songs were awesome and memorable but the record dragged on forever and I could never finish it. How does this one hold up?

Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, October 31, 2006 at 12:51 AM (EST)

This dick's a snake.

Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, October 31, 2006 at 12:41 AM (EST)

these arms are gay

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Posted by BrendanKelly on 2006-10-31 00:37:30
My Score:

good, but hard to get into.
still working on it.