Everything is Not Going To be Alright.

Album: Keep Telling Myself It’s Alright
Artist: Ashes Divide
Genre: Alternative Rock
Year: 2008
Label: Island

I expected better from Billy Howerdel. First, a history lesson: Billy Howerdel was a guitar tech for TooL before he started collaborating with Maynard James Keenan to form A Perfect Circle. As the primary composer of that band, Howerdel backed Keenan’s unearthly vocals with equally celestial instrumentation. It seemed that the two of them created a perfect balance. Keenan’s performance is probably what drew most people to APC, but they stayed for Howerdel’s compositions. It seemed like he could do no wrong, creating everything from driving hard rockers to mournful symphonies of strings and guitars. Howerdel had a gift for the guitar, there is no question. The sound he made with an ax was like a bell tolling and its chords are what propelled me through my early high school years. After APC dissolved, I wondered what Howerdel would do next. Would he go back to guitar teching? Or would he form a new band? As it turns out, he did the latter, as Howerdel has returned to the music scene with his new band: Ashes Divide. While I knew that this new project wouldn’t be APC, I thought it had plenty of potential, and it saddens me to say that a lot of that potential is wasted.

Here’s the problem: the music feels recycled. With APC, Howerdel created some truly haunting soundscapes that would send shivers up your spine. A perfect example is “The Noose” from the APC album Thirteenth Step. The song builds slowly, beginning with just Howerdel’s chiming guitars. Then Maynards voice comes in and the atmosphere is set. It’s at one time one of the most beautiful and eeriest pieces Howerdel’s ever composed. With this new band, however, the normally haunting atmosphere sounds… too familiar. “A Wish” might have been a good song if it didn’t sound like I’d heard it before and better. The whole album has the feel of APC b-sides which Howerdel shelved for later use and never got around to until now. This kind of music, while great for APC-and me at the time I was listening to it-feels stale now, like a box of crackers you forgot to close properly. Another problem is Howerdel’s voice and lyrics. It would have behooved the man to get a better vocalist then himself for this new band, like he did with APC. Instead, we are subjected to Howerdel poorly trying to emulate Maynard James Keenan. Keenan was APC’s vocalist for a reason: he’s fucking amazing. Howerdel, it seems, understood this and tries to sing as much like him as possible, hoping for the same effect, but it falls flat.

What’s more, Howerdel is simply not the wordsmith that Keenan is. Keenan’s words are poetry, stories that draw you in and immerse you in a world dark yet fantastic. Howerdel by contrast sounds like a bored goth, spinning the same old woes of alienation, heartache and despair. In this area too, he’s trying to emulate Keenan and it’s just not working. I still like Howerdel and think that he has untapped potential to be more than he is now, musically speaking. Still, this album is boring, no bones about it. It’s not exactly bad, but it doesn’t live up to the expectations set forth by Howerdel’s previous music. Maybe next time.