Illusory Walls - The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die: Review
The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die
is a Connecticut based band/collective who have been commonly placed under the emo label even though they have interpolated numerous indie and experimental rock genres to their sound over the years. Their first three records blended genres and were met with critical acclaim and while it's been four years since their last studio album they released a compilation of assorted tracks back in 2019.
Review By Lav:
I don't know if you guys have heard of websites like Twitter, Rateyourmusic or 4Chan's /mu/ board, but emo music is kind of a big deal in those places. While I can't keep up with literally every up-start emo project that gets hyped up by 6 people on rym I was pretty early on TWIABP. Heartbeat In The Brain completely knocked my socks off the first time I heard it back in 2013 or so and I've heard pretty much everything the group has done ever since. While it can be a bit hard to narrow down their style since they have so many influences and so many rotating members there is an element of the unpredictability that draws me in to their projects. While Illusory Walls does have a persistent sound of cloudy nostalgia throughout it also interpolates a rotating cast of vocalists and an instrumental palette with post-hardcore and even prog rock influences. The results are solid if occasionally mild, with many of the best moments coming in the final leg.
These 11 tracks add up to a 70 minute runtime but essentially work in two halves. The first half is made up of 9 songs, two of which are sort of like interludes. The first one is pleasant enough but the second which sees the band cosplaying as Bright Eyes is one spot I might suggest skipping. The records trio of singles also land in this section and it's safe to say they got better with each one. Invading The World Of The Guilty As A Spirit Of Vengeance was the lead single and I can't say it left a huge impression on me despite the band leaning into some progisms. There is still an emotional fragility to the vocals and lyrics but also some very technical and involved guitar work that goes beyond math rock into something a bit more theatrical. While I do think some of the instrumental noodling can be pretty distracting at points I still think the song is alright.
Queen Sophie For President was definitely an improvement and as weird of a comparison as it is it actually reminds me of Parannoul with the almost video game like synths. The lead vocals are absolutely infectious and while I'm not 100% positive of who exactly is singing she's doing a great job. The whole thing has a sweet demeanor despite the lyrics and the result is a bright, impassioned song. The final single Trouble is also a favorite of mine and it's likely to be the most familiar track on the record for longtime fans. While it certainly has an instrumental versatility to it, it has the harrowing and sorrowful sound that the band always does so well. When the dense background guitars rush in on the back end of the song it feels like an emotional release of epic proportions and I was surprised to see that this wasn't the records closer, though I now understand why and we'll get there.
Afraid To Die certainly serves it's purpose as an introspective opener and the eruption of electric guitar the closes it off works to get your blood pumping going into the record. Similarly Your Brain Is A Rubbermaid is a short cut that transitions from a pseudo ambient instrumental opener into chugging metal guitars and some monotone but still impactful singing. Both of these songs have a gimmick to them but I wouldn't call either a highlight.
We Saw Birds Through The Hole In The Ceiling is ambitious in switching up it's emotional palette and instrumental presentation. It frequently crashes cutting electric guitar riffs into the solemn emo passages and building up to a loud finale complete with cascading synths and a wall of reverbing guitars. It's an energetic peak even if some of the emotion is a bit lost in the transition. Finally Died In The Prison Of The Holy Office is the longest song on the first half of the record even though it makes use of cloudy obscured vocal passages that I'm not crazy about. What I do love its the songs instrumental build which has such a tangible momentum and rise in excitement and the peak totally lives up to it. The lyrics also ended up sticking with me quite a bit and I enjoy the songs depraved and anguished tone.
The second half of the record is really just two songs, but they're quite the pair. First is Infinite Josh a fifteen and a half minute cut which is more than twice as long as any other TWIABP track that I can remember up to this point. The track begins primarily with acoustic guitar though there is an ambient tone hanging in the background that I think actually adds quite a bit. It all serves to set up the tracks core thematic hook of biting nostalgia and the unstoppable force of time. The second portion of the song is a long one that's dreamy and sentimental fitting in really well with a lot of the records other core songs. Around the halfway point is has a pretty major shift towards more cutting and wiry electric guitars that leads into a dramatic rise. While the song is obviously indulgent given its length it never feels rigid or loses its heart and I can appreciate that about it.
Fewer Afraid is the closing track and it starts with a long samples vocal passage which is one of the fastest ways directly to my heart. The sample is just fascinating to me as the speaker recounts the death of his mother with a poetic disposition and yet another nostalgic haze. Oh yeah also did I forget to mention this song is almost twenty minutes long, whoops. The track gets pretty thematically expansive and even meta at some points with long vocal passages being paired with brief but impactful instrumental interludes. Where the song really hits its stride is across the last five minutes with the grand expansive instrumental meeting up with duel vocalists who are diving into some of the records emotional touchstones. The lyricism is pretty rich in its metaphors and observations but still fits into incredibly catchy refrains.
Illusory Walls has its thrills and moments of wonderfully raw emotion. While not every song is a hit they do manage to execute a number of different styles and energy levels well. One of the more common complaints I've heard about the record is that the band doesn't really "sound like themselves" anymore and I get where people are coming from in that regard. The band has always had a personality even if they were hard to contain and this sounds more like the committee approach you might expect from a group that is as much a musical collective as it is a conventional band. Despite that there is enough talent here to carry some of the lulls and make for a solid listening experience even if it is the most nondescript of their records so far. 7/10
The movement of this composition makes me super excited. I really like how the eye moves through this piece. I love the weathered feel and think it tells a story throughout but I would've made some of the colors more vibrant because things become a bit muddy in the dark areas. Incorporating text would be nice but off there top of my head I can't really find a place for it and it doesn't necessarily need it to be successful. 7.5/10
For more flavors of emo check out my review of AFI's Bodies here
