The Valley Arena – Take Comfort in Strangers / 2005 Astro Magnetics / 10 Tracks / http://www.thevalleyarena.com / http://www.astromagnetics.com / Reviewed 30 March 2005
The Valley Arena has an intense sound that is immensely hard to label, and tracks like “Into The Lions Mouth” are so dense, so full of music that it is virtually impossible to realize everything that is going on. Even in more sedate tracks like “Carneceria”, The Valley Arena and their vocalist Warren are able to create their own harmonies that layer themselves over the instrumentation, augmenting and playing off the music to nigh-perfection. Coming to tracks like “Burn Off Regret” with a “Go With The Flow-esque” Queens of the Stone Age meets “Absolution” Muse sound, The Valley Arena are masters of the creation of dynamic tension in their tracks. “Exciting about the band are the incredible jumps that the Valley Arena make in just the space of a few three-minute long songs. Never one to let a track go on past its expiration date, “Take Comfort in Strangers” is a short, to the point, and blistering album that says everything that it has to say in a little over thirty minutes. Contrary to what the entire packaging of the disc may seem to scream about the band, The Valley Arena is one of the most interesting and innovative bands of this new year.
“The Plastic Knife You Swing” uses metal riffs, mathematically-constructed guitar lines, and utterly driven vocals to make a strong case for the later section of “Take Comfort in Strangers” being just as strong as the opening tracks of the disc. The extended nature of the title track, which would provide a challenge for many bands of normal talent to fill successfully, strings along listeners through its almost five-minute runtime. Everything is so perfectly placed on this CD and yet The Valley Arena never falls into the problem that so many bands with money have, in that they pay for the best engineers and these engineers gradually reduce their music into a perfect pop ditty that could never be achieved in the studio. With each track on “Take Comfort in Strangers”, I could conceivably hear Michael, Dave, Chris and Warren play the music contained within. The Valley Arena will be the band of the summer just as soon as “Take Comfort in Strangers” hits shelves in May; tracks like “Carneceria” will be the fast track to being hip, and perhaps some good music will hit the shelves of young kids worldwide.
Top Tracks: Carneceria, The Plastic Knife You Swing
Rating: 7.4/10