Tolerance – Faster Crashes Harder / 2005 Zia Records / 11 Tracks / http://www.tolerance.net / http://www.ziarecords.com / Reviewed 21 October 2005

Not quite emo or the new brand of rock, Tolerance is a band that plays to the margins of society perfectly. The disc’s first real hit comes during “Next To You”, a track which balances perfectly emotion and a rough edge that is ameliorated by strong production. The continual shifting in arrangements give the track an unique feel that will never get old, regardless of however many times individuals listen in. “Let You Down” shows the band’s prowess much more than the previous tracks on “Faster Crashes Harder”; the rapidly-increasing energy present in the lead-in to the stanzas.

What is a really gutsy move for the band in creating an instrumental track in “Softer” turns out to be a complete success. Atom’s drumming on the track verge into the realm of tribal beats, while the simplistic scales played by the guitarists really give the track (and by extension, the disc) a progressive feel that segue ways nicely into “Your Protector”. What really is more impressive than the force and fury in which Tolerance couches many of their tracks has to be their ability to continually come up with tracks that blast well beyond normal track lengths and still succeed in providing listeners with something they can stay interested in. The disc may only be forty-five minutes, but the density of tracks like “The Elitest” really straddle the line between rock and progressive type of operatic songs.

Instead of just working around a hook or guitar riff for a short time, the vocals laid down by Cory tell a story and really commit the listener completely to the disc. “Now You’re Just A Blur” uses very simple types of riffs (in the Trapt/Disturbed vein of things) while there are brief interludes that allow for amore nuanced sound to escape for the briefest of periods. The only thing that ocan be said about Tolerance is that while the arrangements are dense and full of pep, the space between the tracks is not far enough to allow for delineation to be complete. While each of the tracks are ready to make it to the big time, the average output by Tolerance is not varied enough to really fuel the three-quarters hour runtime of this disc. When everything drops away and the vocals are able to take an undistorted stance (such as in the final track), Tolerance can succeed but the lack of differentiation is a major blow to the success of this disc.

Top Tracks: Let You Down, Faith Alone

Rating: 4.2/10

[JMcQ]