By: James Southworth
Rating: 4/5 Stars
One of the most pleasant surprises for music in 2017 was Palisades' self-titled album. At the beginning of their career, I was interested to see where they would go, but when they released their sophomore release "Mind Games", most hope I had for the band was burned to the ground. I only went to their self-titled out of a small shred of optimism that maybe they could improve. And man, was I glad that my expectations were blown away. Their self-titled showed the band at a completely new level they'd never been at before, with a potent and mature electronic rock sound to boot. I still return to this album frequently, and that's because almost every song has something about it to love. So, I was undeniably excited to see where Palisades would go with "Erase My Pain". With their self-titled, I predicted that they titled it with their own band name for a reason: the sound/lyrical content was going to be the what they'd be going for on their following releases. My prediction proved to be mainly right. Even though "Erase The Pain" strips away most of the electronic flourishes, what we get is still an excellent hard rock album that is thoroughly addicting from start to finish. There are very minimal bumps in the road along the way.
This album gets off to a great start with "Vendetta", which gives you a pretty good idea of how this album is going to sound. This track establishes a lot of the things I like about this album: the catchy choruses, pulse-pounding guitar riffs, and lead vocalist Lou Miceli's sounding as awesome as ever. If there's one significant change to the album, it is actually to Miceli's vocals. In their previous album, he adopted a more smooth, pop/rock sound, which worked very well for that album's style. For this album, his voice has a lot more grit, and he screams a lot more. This is the best change in this album, and it's actually the one aspect of it that I think I like better than the self-titled. "Vendetta" establishes the main theme of the album: that people often try to force us to change who we are essentially, and that we have to stand for what we believe in. The lyrics echo this theme in a nice way, and the intense instrumentation serves to accentuate it. The title track comes up next, and is definitely one of my top favorites on the album. It's the song that comes closest to sounding like something lifted straight up from the self-titled album, so I'm obviously going to be biased towards it. The chorus is one of the most intense on the album, as Miceli practically screams out every word. The usage of electronics in this song is subtle, and they work for that reason. "War" was a really great choice for the lead single. I think it's probably the most fun song on the album musically, and the chorus is one that I can see fans shouting along to in a live setting. It has some great guitar work and some of the most interesting drumming on this album as a whole. I really like how the song seems to continue to ratchet up the intensity every time Lou screams out "You're the only one to blame", which is one of the most memorable lines in the release as a whole. Out of all the tracks here, "Ways to Disappear" is probably one of the most surprising. It has more of a rock ballad feel to it, which I didn't exactly expect Palisades to do. The band is more known for doing a lot of intense cuts, which is what I like about them. But if they were to do more songs like this track, I wouldn't complain. It's one of the most vulnerable on the album, and has compelling lyrical content: "I find ways to disappear/And my words are never clear/I gotta find a way to face the things I fear/I’m not good at letting go". The lyrics aren't necessarily the most poetically written. Still, their clarity gives them a sense of raw realness, which fits with the raw sound this song has. Lou sounds totally stripped away of any studio manipulation, which I love as well.
The second half of the album has plenty of material to commend. "Fragile Bones" was the single that really attracted me to this album, as I do actually like it a little better than "War". It has Lou giving a pretty personal testimony about a person who pushed him to change. This person pushed him so hard that he made him hate himself. This song has an almost uncomfortable raw feeling to it, as Miceli's anger comes out in big ways in the chorus. But for all the sadness and darkness the song has, it does have a powerful message from the band: that we don't have to be fragile; that we can fight against those who are trying so hard to make us something we're not. This album has such an interesting way of presenting this pretty common theme throughout this song. After this, we get "Push". While this may not be the most interesting song in the world, I do find its guitar riffs irresistible. Also, out of all the choruses on the album, I was almost immediately singing along to this one. If there's any song on this album that would have radio success (which I'm sadly sure won't happen because Palisades are vastly underrated), it would be this one. And then we get "Patient", which may actually become my favorite song by the band in general over time. Yes, it's that good! This song just bleeds emotion from start to finish, with the chorus feeling more intense and heartbreaking with each repetition. The band is firing on all cylinders in this song, making it one of the most emotive listening experiences I've had in recent memory. I love the lyrics of this track which depict a person's experience with an abusive relationship: "And I can't say your name/'Cause you’re cutting off my tongue/And I don’t think you’ll ever understand/Just how you left me numb". Like a lot of the highlight songs on the album, these lyrics work because of their raw simplicity. There's something to be said for lyrics that do a good job of giving the message without having to do it in an overly showy way. Lou's vocals are at their absolute best here, and they even made me emotional a bit as it sounds like he's nearly crying when he's screaming out the chorus. This is a beautiful song, and an immediate contender for my best songs of 2019 (because this album came out so late in December 2018, I'm counting it towards this year). We then end off with "Shed My Skin", which is sort of a victory cry for the band. This is the most hard rocking song off the album. I love all the unique snake metaphors used to visually represent a person being reborn from their previously broken state. It's a perfect way to end off the album.
There are only a couple of specific moments that don't work for me on this album. Even the worst songs on here aren't particularly painful; at worst, they are just somewhat forgettable. "Fade" irritates me more for just breaking up an otherwise really good first half of this album. It just feels like a filler track, right up to its generic title. The usage of "oh"s in the song didn't help its case either, as this band proves on most of the other songs here they don't need filler noise to flesh out their tracks. "Ghost" is probably the weakest song here. It's about exactly what you would think it is: Lou feels like this girl doesn't see him for who he really is in their relationship, so he feels invisible. It's a bit eye roll worthy, and the pretty solid chorus can't entirely save this song from still feeling mostly generic. I also felt like this album was a bit too short at only 10 tracks and 32 minutes long. I would've loved at least one or two more tracks to make this album feel more fully fleshed out.
Even though I loved Palisades' self-titled album, I still was a little unsure of whether they would be able to hold up to the masterful work they had created with only about a year in between. Usually, I feel like a sweet spot for an album to have sufficient work done on it is 2-3 years. This was definitely not the case for "Erase The Pain" though. It would be a high order for this album to even have a chance of matching the quality of the band's self-titled, and this release ended up actually coming pretty close. The tracks that I loved here, I really loved. The weaker tracks here really don't hinder my listening experience to a significant degree. If you are the type that likes hard rock with an emotive edge, then this album is for you. I'd honestly recommend it to everyone. This release is a great way to start off 2019, and definitely has potential for my year-end list!
Favorite Songs: "Patient", "Erase The Pain", "Ways to Disappear", "Fragile Bones", "Shed My Skin"
Least Favorite Songs: "Ghost", "Fade"
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