Vaux

Plague Music (Equal Vision)
by Ewan Wadharmi

I had to go back to the inconsistent There Must Be Some Way To Stop Them, because I can’t believe the band responsible really pulled it together so well on Plague Music. Davey Havok needs to hear how what AFI is trying to do can be accomplished without all the bullshit. This time ’round, the metal edge is chamfered by dramatic soaring Goth rock progressions and honed again with Sabbath crunch. Quentin Smith’s maniacal shouting is still present and refreshingly decipherable, but Smith plays around with more vulnerable, and therefore scarier, techniques. They’ve gotten confident enough to present a gypsy cabaret steamy enough so that you truly believe “Sex Will Happen Tonight.” Spacey electronic squeaks put a modern stamp on the piece, whose bravado-influenced title belies how effectively seductive it is. I feel justified in my previous comparison to Filter taken to its logical extension. Vaux have mastered ebb and flow dynamics to disarm and then beat the shit out of you.
(www.equalvision.com)