At the Drive In - Relationship of Command - Grand Royal

Review by: Chris Boehk

The long awaited major label debut from El Paso's spastic rockers is finally upon us. Super-slick, flawless production and super-good hard rock-n-roll is what we are given. I preface this by saying that I am not a long time At the Drive In fan, and have never seen them live (Which from what I hear is incredible). So, I hope I can give Relationship of Command an unbiased review.

This record is LOUD. Pounding, rhythm, relentless, and angry right from the start. Heavy bass and drums dominate the music with melodic guitar sprinkled on top. It does have it's quieter parts occasionally, but they burst into extreme loudness without fail. Take the hit single "One Armed Scissors", that is getting a shit load of airplay, it's a perfect example of the rest of the loud-quiet-loud formulas ATDI use so well.

Then there's the singers voice. While it does compliment the music, I'm not really that crazy about it and can only take ATDI in small doses because of it. High-pitched and whiney, sometimes screamy, sometimes sung vibrato, it starts to be abrasive.

But all in all, this is a really good record and you should check it out if you haven't already. (I think I was the last to hear them).