The Chase Down on Myspace
Some might say The Chase Down is a post-hardcore band. What is post-hardcore, anyway? Often, when kids who used to scream in the faces of their audiences get a little older and write melodic music with singing, this tag is frequently applied. It’s true that these fine gentlemen* used to scream in the key of E-minor over breakdowns and microphone hog piles: Brett has been known to half-jokingly cuss out lackadaisical showgoers with Too Pure To Die and, alongside Ben, Birth of a Hero. Likewise, Jasen and Drew have a history of metal/hardcore roguery with A Summary Execution, among others. However, the highly refined, melodic rock anthems crafted by The Chase Down are a far cry from the members’ floor punching younger days. Telecaster guitars, tube amps, and slightly raspy, soaring vocal melodies take precedence here. Because the members have spent years cutting their teeth in other bands (some of them together in the shortly-lived Checkmate), they are capable of delivering quite impressive guitar melodies–just listen to “Through The Storm” for proof–and a bigger-than-life wall of sound via shimmering chords and distorted finger picking, not to mention the mammoth bass foundation. They also know when to deliver a left hook and change up the timing for dramatic effect, employing four-on-the-floor bridges that get stuck in the listener’s head for an indefinite period of time. Lyrically, Bret looks inward and writes reflective essays on where life has taken him, where he’s at now, and where he hopes to find himself in the future. “Plastic Cars” and “Chasing Dreams” are the kind of expositions anyone who has found him or herself at an epochal crossroads can immediately grasp. It’s the kind of honest introspection that is thankfully devoid of emo caterwauling, digging much deeper than surface level histrionics. To be sure, The Chase Down is one of the bands providing alleviation to a bruised scene wrought with insincerity.
