Attik Door - Never in Agreement

Attik Door, if you've yet to hear of them, are a hard rock/indie/ska outfit. Now in San Francisco, most of the band's members hail from Russia and the Ukraine. Their style, based on their first EP, a self-titled album released in 2011, combines a healthy element of 80s hard rock with early 90s grunge and some light ska. Their first full-length album is called Never in Agreement and sees the band taking a few risks and a bit of a departure from their original format, with mixed results.

Attik Door's debut EP and their massive tour schedule garnered them a decent international following. The band's live shows are raucous, frenetic and fun, showcasing the talents of each member as well as the incredible onstage dynamic the whole group shares. They have many live videos on Youtube and the energy is intoxicating even from that mile-high perspective. In the six songs on their debut EP, they managed to establish a characteristic sound and introduce the world to singer Liana Tovmasyan's powerful and Gwen Stefani-like voice as well as the intricate and high-level guitar playing of Alex Shrayber and Tim Shulepov. Songs like 'Vanity' and 'New Day' provide a delightfully metalish backing track with lots of shredding while Tovmasyan half croons, half power-belts the vocals. Her voice certainly stands up to the power of the guitars.

With Never in Agreement, the band made sure to note that they were trying some different things with their sound right on their Soundcloud page. They seem to have added a funk aspect and more diversity to their usual formula of hard rock and unconventional vocals. Some aspects of Attik Door's experimentation work well on the album. Shulepov and Shrayber picked up their guitar game even more, with new and different backing riffs and even more complex solos, some of which even get to Scandaniavian thrash metal levels of expertise.

The highlight of Never in Agreement is a song called 'California,' which exemplifies that the band does have the diversity to change up their style. This pretty, almost ballad-like song steers the band away from their usual hard rock toward something more indie with Cure-inspired guitars. A more mellow rhythm track from bassist Margarita Grabarova and drummer Igor Boyko compliment the guitars. Tovmasyan meanwhile shows she can tone down her power vocals with pensive lyrics about the new and different setting in which the band find themselves since their move to San Francisco.

Unfortunately, much of the rest of the album doesn't come off quite so well. The addition of new styles in many of songs seems a little schizophrenic, and the production generally seems a bit canned and unpolished. Songs like the lead track, 'Posers,' swing the pendulum a little too far the other way and seem a little too formulaic; classic 80s hard rock turns into a sort of static song structure. On songs like these Tovmasyan's characteristic vocals sound strained rather than powerful. Other songs like 'Snorting Headlines' and 'Kosmos' almost hit the mark, but it seems there is something off with each one. Nonsensical lyrics here, too much dead space there.

It seems overall that the great experiment Attik Door are calling Never in Agreement has fallen short, but for shining beacons of hope like 'California.' The stepped-up guitar game on this album is also an indicator that the band may simply me working on dialing their sound, figuring out what works and blazing a new musical path for themselves. Never in Agreement definitely isn't terrible, just not remarkable in a positive way either. If they continue to work with their solid base of hard rock and build whatever other styles strike their fancy around that, things should work themselves out. In the meantime, this stellar live band has their high-energy performances with which to build their fan base. They'll be touring around the San Francisco area during the spring of 2015, and despite the mediocre album, their shows are definitely still worth seeing. Mar 12 2015