Looking deeper into the history of Knoxville,Tennessee based Metal band Straight Line Stich, the endless list of ex-musicians attracts one’s attention immediately. Formed back in 2000, looking through the glass, this band’s career has been an eventful one and a half decades of developing their own sound constantly and living a, to quote the band, “true road warrior mentality.” Among others, the band was sharing the stages with titans like Slayer, played Vans Warped Tour and Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival. After releasing three self distributed full-lengths and an EP, the albumWhen Skies Wash Ashore was issued in the United States in 2008 via Koch Records’ sub-label Raging Nation Records. The 2011 successor, The Fight Of Our Lives, reached position 5 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart and No. 34 on the Top Independent Albums chart, thus making the band a household name in the Metal world.
Meanwhile, shriveled to a female fronted trio, the band consists of permanent musicians Alexis Brown, who is the only original member and singer from 2003, bassist Darren McClelland, and guitarist Jason White. This is the core of Straight Line Stitch and what has kept the band evolving to the next level. Offering their second in less than a year, the band are set to release Transparency June 30th via Pavement Entertainment. Offering up five songs, plus one intro, this is Straight Line Stitch showing the width of their manifoldness in impressive moments.
With this said, the band moves between Hard Rock and Metal, with obvious Metalcore riffing and influences. Not only because of Miss Brown’s voice, but the band’s overall sound ranges from Lacuna Coil to In Flames in a very unique and modern mixture. The opening song “Dark Matter” is a roller-coaster ride between soulful vocals and screamed, concentrated hate-growls without losing the melodic red line. “Out of Body” convinces with more clean vocals, an acoustic guitar, and piano driven verse to raise into a bombastic, but also kittenish, chorus. Clean and extreme vocals alternate, as well as staccato riffs and clean acoustic parts, thoroughly proving the intensity of Straight Line Stitch perfectly in the cut “Wilderness.” Comparably pleasing, “Face of God” and the EP closer, “Human Bondage,” contains a playfulness that always stays in the foreground for listeners.
Transparency underlines Straight Line Stitch’s ambitions to play in the first league of nowadays aggressive Rock music. Unfortunately, the pleasure is over after a short, but entertaining, twenty-two minutes. It remains to be seen if Straight Line Stitch can hold this high level of energy and song writing chops on a next full-length album. There is nothing else to do but wait for it, hopefully not too long , to be drawn into Straight Line Stitch.
Meanwhile, shriveled to a female fronted trio, the band consists of permanent musicians Alexis Brown, who is the only original member and singer from 2003, bassist Darren McClelland, and guitarist Jason White. This is the core of Straight Line Stitch and what has kept the band evolving to the next level. Offering their second in less than a year, the band are set to release Transparency June 30th via Pavement Entertainment. Offering up five songs, plus one intro, this is Straight Line Stitch showing the width of their manifoldness in impressive moments.
With this said, the band moves between Hard Rock and Metal, with obvious Metalcore riffing and influences. Not only because of Miss Brown’s voice, but the band’s overall sound ranges from Lacuna Coil to In Flames in a very unique and modern mixture. The opening song “Dark Matter” is a roller-coaster ride between soulful vocals and screamed, concentrated hate-growls without losing the melodic red line. “Out of Body” convinces with more clean vocals, an acoustic guitar, and piano driven verse to raise into a bombastic, but also kittenish, chorus. Clean and extreme vocals alternate, as well as staccato riffs and clean acoustic parts, thoroughly proving the intensity of Straight Line Stitch perfectly in the cut “Wilderness.” Comparably pleasing, “Face of God” and the EP closer, “Human Bondage,” contains a playfulness that always stays in the foreground for listeners.
Transparency underlines Straight Line Stitch’s ambitions to play in the first league of nowadays aggressive Rock music. Unfortunately, the pleasure is over after a short, but entertaining, twenty-two minutes. It remains to be seen if Straight Line Stitch can hold this high level of energy and song writing chops on a next full-length album. There is nothing else to do but wait for it, hopefully not too long , to be drawn into Straight Line Stitch.