Evergreen Terrace

At Our Worst (2004)

Rob Melville

Evergreen Terrace had a three-year gap between 2002's Burned Alive by Time and 2005's Sincerity Is an Easy Disguise in This Business; in between is one of those holdover releases: At Our Worst is a collection of live tracks, demo tracks, and one unreleased song.

The first five songs are live songs, which have great sound quality. What's always been good about Evergreen Terrace is their ability to mix Drew Carey and Craig Chaney's vocals together. Though a majority of the vocals are screamed, the clean mixed-in is nice. And the screamed vocals aren't completely incoherent, either. The live songs are all recorded well, and there's nothing that really overpowers in the mix, although Carey's screaming does tend to be a little loud and the bass is slightly soft. Overall, the live tracks are well-performed, though "In My Dreams I Can Fly" has some sloppy backing vocals at the start. As with most metalcore bands, the drumming gets redundant, as there only so many things you can do with a double-bass-pedal…most of it resulting in the repetitive *dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun*.

The unreleased song, "You're Entering a World of Pain" didn't make the cut for Burned Alive by Time, but despite this, it remains a solid song.

Now the demos. These were all written, according to the liner notes, within two months of forming. The result is very forced vocals, off-sounding drums, and rough mixes. The songs still have something to them and are still forceful–they're just not as polished as they could be. Overall, though, for being demos they're good.

Despite having no real new material, At Our Worst is a nice glimpse at what the band started as and what they can do live. Instrument-wise, the drumming is, as stated before, repetitive. The vocals are sometimes too loud, and the bass can rarely be heard; only when by itself. It's not really a necessity, but, if you are a fan of Evergreen Terrace, it is worth getting, even if only for the awesome cover art.