The One Above All, The End Of All That Is: Instrumental

Curl Up And Die formed in 1998 as a result of a few guys in Vegas being bored, but mostly as an excuse to play in a band. After a few shows, a couple of the guys went their separate ways to pursue other interests and Curl Up And Die found new willing musicians and got serious.

Matt Fuchs / Mike Minnick / Jesse Fitts / Gustavo Mendoza / Ryan Hartery

www.myspace.com/curlupanddie

If Curl Up and Die teach their listener anything with their music, it's that there is/was such a thing as a good, consistent, metalcore band. For over five years Curl Up and Die had been putting out strong, guitar-heavy music, and it all culminated with the 2005 release of The One Above All, the End of All That Is. While the vocals have remained unchanged, as well as the ridiculous song titles, which they were doing before it became "kewl" (see: "Blood Mosh Hips Hair Lips Pills Fuck Death"), The One Above All is definitely a reflection of a less aggressive, decelerated Curl Up and Die.

The One Above All opens with a slow-paced, nearly five minute-long track of Botch-influenced noise entitled "An Uncomfortable Routine," followed by the just-shy-of-a-minute, more melodic "Antidepressants Are Depressing." The album returns back to a slower pace in "Black Out," but luckily picks right back up with "There Ain't No Can't in American," one of the album's more noteworthy tracks. The track "Zero MPH Fallover" returns Curl Up and Die to the more hardcore-influenced sound, which quickly fades with the heavier guitar riffs in "There Is Never Enough Time to Do Nothing."

One thing The One Above All is certainly able to do is to showcase CUAD's ability to jump between fast and slow-paced material, signalling that though somewhat of a transformation may have started to progress, it wasn't one that would completely renovate their style immediately. Also noteworthy with this album is the intricate and quite colourful artwork done by EATDRINK Media.

Though The One Above All, the End of All That Is. doesn't quite live up to its predecessors, Curl Up and Die have proven over the years that they know what they're doing. Metalcore surely misses them.

PUNKNEWS.ORG, January 27th, 2006, review by Meg