The Subtle Way - Against Our Own Retreat

The Subtle Way - Against Our Own Retreat

Against Our Own Retreat is The Subtle Way’s debut album and it is of the Post-Hardcore genre. This album was released in April 2007. This album is the best Post-Hardcore I have ever heard out of all of them. This album is just amazing and I think it would be awesome if more people would hear this because this is pure gold.

I cannot stress how great this album is. When I first heard this album it blew me away. There is so much awesomeness in this album it is astounding. This album is jam packed with Breakdowns, Emotion, great solos, great vocals and musically it is amazing. It has my favourite post-hardcore song on it and that is the song Collisions With Frictions. The vocals musically they are flawless and sound awesome. This album has three moods as well and they are clearly defined unlike some other albums. There are the fast and heavy tracks, slow and emotional tracks and the ones that are in between. An example of a fast and heavy track is The Perfect Lense, slow and emotional would be Collisions With Frictions and an in between one would be Knights Of Columbus. To add to an already great album they have put some great breakdowns in it.

They really achieve what they set out to do. They have successfully created emotion in the songs by not making it so fast, utilizing the correct vocals and melody. Also they have put slower quieter parts in an emotional song creating much more emotion. For faster songs they have achieved an energetic “atmosphere” by having fast tempos, utilizing more dirty vocals and breakdowns. The Subtle Way are successful in everything they try to achieve in terms of setting up emotional songs and energetic songs.

This album has so much variety it is great value and endlessly re-playable. If you were to compare this band to some of the Mainstream bands out there, this band would either be on the same level or a lot higher. The thing that would make this album so successful is that it would target a large audience and that is what many other bands don’t do, but this one fulfils that goal that so many other bands fail to do. That is what this makes this band so special.

I cannot find any negative things about this album, it is seemingly perfect. It has everything a Post-Hardcore fan would want.

Overall this is the best Post-Hardcore album I have ever heard. It has awesome vocals, great melody, heavy breakdowns, variety of emotions in its tracks and it can target a wide audience. That is what makes this band a great band. I recommend the song The Perfect Lense for people who like fast and heavy. I also recommend the songs Collisions With Frictions and Love Notes In The Infrared for people who like slower emotional songs. For people who like both I recommend the whole album. This album is the best album I have heard for Post-Hardcore and I give it a well deserved 20/20.