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If I had to determine which album was the most impactful in shaping my musical taste, all signs would point to The Fall of Troy's Doppelgänger. Like many others, the first song I heard from the Mukilteo, Washington trio was F.C.P.R.E.M.I.X.; a frenetic, yet poppy prog-rock tune most known for its iconic, descending arpeggio riff. It also has an undeniable chorus that features both soaring vocals and anthemic lead guitar melodies. What captured me the most, however, was the more-than-a-minute-long instrumental passage in the middle of the song that showcased the band's intricate musicianship as well as their immersive and cinematic songwriting. The winding odyssey reminded me of Rush (my father's favourite band), but for a generation informed by a decade of angst and hyper-accelerated advancements. Once everything in the song clicked for me, my excitement brimmed. I needed more.
The Fall of Troy didn't waltz easily into my good graces. In fact, as I began to sample more of the record, The Fall of Troy nearly lost me altogether. I wasn't prepared for the chaos, the ugliness, and the desperation that accounted for a majority of the moments on Doppelgänger. The panicked chords, angular riffs, the intense playing, and the ever-changing meters were an anxiety-inducing shock to the system. And that's not even covering the screamed assault launched by both Thomas Erak and (occasionally) Tim Ward; a vocal style I was struggling to accept at the time. Hearing Erak's manic and disturbingly sassy vocal freakout on Tom Waits, the horrifyingly grotesque conclusion to We Better Learn to Hotwire a Uterus, or the flurry of technical guitar and screams that make I Just Got This Symphony Goin' incredibly volatile was way more than I was prepared to handle at the time.
Despite the more challenging aspects of their sound, I found a lot of things to return to. Again, I was super impressed by the band's musical chops, to the extent that I had to scour the internet for live videos to visualize how their music worked logistically. What I found astonished me. Immediately you notice Erak who plays these incredibly complex guitar parts that involve finger-tangling chord shapes, lightning quick hammer-ons and pull-offs, two handed tapping, and managing a library of sounds at his feet. That's impressive in its own right, but then you add the singing and screaming; you can't help but wonder how one has the mental bandwidth to execute so many functions all at once. Ward and Andrew Forsman (drums) are no slouches either, playing parts that are similarly intricate and inspiringly creative all while navigating the mind-bending rhythm or tempo changes as one tightly knit unit. They were able to pull together this charismatic and surprisingly tight performance all without the support of a backing track or metronome. It was punk. It was rock 'n' roll. I found myself completely mesmerized.
I was also quite enamoured with their songwriting. As brutal as some of those chaotic sections were, there was something very mythical, or majestic even, about their music. The reason why I think that's the case is because the band was so successful at crafting songs with linear progressions. Where some bands' attempts at linear songwriting can feel like one section simply tacked on to the end of another without any sense of where they've been or where they're going, listening to The Fall of Troy feels like you're experiencing an epic saga. The band are masters of regulating emotions, linking different musical ideas in such a way that everything flows coherently and always builds anticipation for what comes next. These qualities are best exhibited on songs like The Ho[]y Tape..., Whacko Jacko Steals the Elephant Man's Bones, and the violent, psychological thriller Macaulay McCulkin.
After many revisits, I began to acclimatize to the band's harsh and aggressive qualities, and it wasn't long after that I started crediting them as my favourite band. The effect they had on my life from that point on was truly profound. Wanting to dive deeper into their world, I explored their top friends on MySpace. That's where I found Daughters and Tera Melos, two bands who challenged me even more with their respective brands of chaos. This set me on a path towards accepting more extreme or weirder genres of rock and metal. The band's influence doesn't stop there though. The instrumental interludes, the lengthy instrumental jams, and Erak's sound/texture design abilities that make use of looping and various effects has helped me develop an appreciation for more abstract forms of music. This may include IDM, ambient, noise, drone, post-rock, and probably a whole host of others. I won't even get into how their music has influenced my own approach to writing and playing, or the connections this band would have facilitated, or the projects I would be fortunate to be a part of as a result of making those connections. This album that is now celebrating a twenty year anniversary (hard to believe) opened so many doors for me. For that, I feel incredibly indebted to The Fall of Troy and this masterpiece.