Emery - "Can't Stop the Killer" (2007)

Emery are a band of guys from South Carolina who moved to Seattle to try to make it. And make it they did. They rose to the top of the “emo/screamo” genre following the success of their 2005 sophomore album The Question. That album was about as good as it can get as far as screamo goes. There was a perfect mixture of screaming and melody, interesting guitar parts and thoughtful lyrics. In short, The Question was going to be hard to top. Sadly Emery’s third album I’m Only a Man falls drastically short of the mark set by The Question. It’s almost hard to tell the same band created the album. It sounds more like something a group of high school kids would throw together and call music. It’s just very disjointed and almost completely devoid of hooks and the lyrics are akin to freshman English poetry. Emery’s debut The Weak’s End also suffered a bit from uninspired lyrics, but it showed promise. However, there is little promise to be found on I’m Only a Man. It’s ironic that a song entitled “Don’t Bore Us, Get To the Chorus” would have the least memorable chorus of all. The song starts off with an awkward Queen-esque falsetto vocal arrangement and fumbles through about three minutes before it deteriorates into unintelligible screaming. Another disappointment is “World Away” which almost a straightforward pop-song. On the DVD that accompanies the special edition, one of the band members explains that since they only have one guitar player in the band now, most of these songs were written with only one guitar part, with extra tracking done on only a few songs. I think that’s a big mistake in this genre because, the dual guitar attack is part of what makes it interesting. Because of this, most songs feel like there is something missing. So you may be asking yourself: If you hate this album so much, why are you posting a song from it? The answer is I don’t really know. I still like Emery as a band and The Question will remain one of my favorites. Emery is still a band that I think you should know and maybe you’ll like it better than I did. Today’s song is one of the few cool spots on the record. Singer Toby Morrell has a flair for over dramatic storytelling as evidenced in the song’s lyrics, but I feel that this song most closely resembles how Emery used to sound. So my final word is, definitely buy The Question, but I’m Only a Man is a decision you’ll have to make for yourself. It could have been so much better.

Emery - "Can't Stop the Killer"