July 13, 2004 - 3750

Two weeks after my last release and two years since their debut "...And Life Is Very Long", The Acacia Strain released their second album "3750" on July 13, 2004. Bassist Karrie Whitfield is no longer with the band and he is not replaced as lead guitarist Daniel Laskiewicz also plays bass on this record and they reduce to a five-piece. The Acacia Strain are still playing the same super heavy style of metal as their debut, let's check out the latest!

The album begins with a short song called "Carbomb" and after some indistinct chatter they slam very heavily into a pretty brutal breakdown that hits HARD! Laskiewicz's guitar sounds super heavy and awesome and Vincent Bennett's screams sound even clearer and heavier than last album! This song is only 1:17 long, but it's a fantastic way to kick things off! Up next is "Brown Noise" and it's got another super heavy, but this time pretty simple, main riff driving things and Bennett continues to sound so epic and heavy with lots of long-held guttural screams. They speed things up a bit midway through with Laskiewicz playing all kinds of great guitar on this track. After the excellent speedy section they slam into a super slow, super heavy crawl of a new riff and everything sounds spectacularly heavy! This is a perfect example of the brutal, punishing style of metal the Acacia Strain plays and with Adam D. still producing of course things sound so good! Track 3 is the title track "3750" and Laskiewicz kicks into a fast-paced main riff that gets your head banging furiously right from the get-go! Everything Bennett screams sounds really good and these guys have really seemed to polish up and refine their sound from last album. This song is slightly repetitive, but with unrelenting heaviness, and only a 2:30 runtime, it's still pretty sweet. The next track is "Smoke Ya Later" and it begins quite slow and actually a little melodic, which is very unusual for these guys, but it's not bad by any means. Things eventually shift to a more typical heavy mood, but it's still really slow which makes the fast drums in the background sound quite intense! We finally notice the other guitarists in this one as Daponde and Daniele play some stuff that isn't just echoing Laskiewicz's lead. They use three different riffs really nicely in this softer part, and also once things get heavier! You can distinctly hear the three different riffs and it sounds really cool in the latter couple, heavier minutes where there's all kinds of good stuff going on! A unique and interesting song for sure! Track 5 is "Extreme Wrath Of The Jhiaxus" and it's a short little interlude with a trippy, static and feedback filled background. We hear a distorted and super low voice overtop and after listening for a few lines I recognize that all the lyrics on this song is a direct quote of a monologue by Anakin Skywalker! It's when he's explaining to Padmé that the sand people killed his mother, so he slaughtered all of them, and with the creepy distortion it makes things sound super dark! What a unique and interesting interlude! Up next is "Drawn And Quartered" and they blast out of a cannon with a fast-paced lead guitar riff by Laskiewicz that sounds awesome and as always a super heavy rhythm section with Daponde and Daniele playing some nice slower stuff behind. Bennett is all over the spectrum with super low growls and also some great high screams and all the music is typical...typically super heavy and awesome! A pretty awesome 2:17! Track 7 is "Passing The Pencil Test" and it's got another pretty sweet main riff that's got a little stop-and-start to it that keeps you on your toes while Bennett screams nice and low overtop. This song is unbelievably heavy with several hard-hitting breakdowns! The ending is just phenomenal with several long silences, making you think the song might be over, only to come slamming in each time with an even slower breakdown! I fucking love the unpredictability and the extreme heaviness! Best song on the album! The next track is "Halcyon" and it's easily the most atypical song on the album as we hear two different guitar riffs: both of them super light, but also decently epic and they mesh well together. This is certainly not what you expect from these guys, but it's actually quite beautifully done! Everything sounds super smooth on this light instrumental track and Laskiewicz even spices up the ending with an electric guitar solo overtop the light background! Solos are also atypical for these guys, but once again they did a great job with their experimenting! The final song on the album is the eight and a half minute "Sun Poison And Skin Cancer" and Laskiewicz is shredding it pretty nicely right from the drop as he starts off by himself, and he sounds awesome doing so! The rest of the band comes in with a great stop-and-start heavy rhythm section that gets you jumping and Bennett sounds great as usual with his mostly low screams, but nice occasional high ones. This song is chuggingly awesome for nearly five minutes, then it fades into a brief silence followed by the sound of a radio searching for a station, and then we get a few different stations for the final three minutes or so, the longest one being a preacher giving a sermon. This is a really strange way to end the song, and the album, but the actual song for the first five minutes was awesome!

That is the end of "3750" and I thought it was another great album by The Acacia Strain. There was a bit more experimenting on this album, but aside from the weird ending to the album most of it was good! And of course there was some pretty brutal metal throughout! I think it comes really close, but it falls short of surpassing their debut "...And Life is Very Long", but this was still a great, punishing album! I look forward to more!