The Strand - Combat Advantage

Combat Advantage is the fourth album by Arizona based group The Strand. First time I came across this band was their song "You Make Me Crazy" (don't really remember where I found it tho) which was a very catchy, well produced and fun piece of music (I loved the vocals). Since then I wanted to know more about The Strand.

Why this band isn't more known is beyond me. Combat Advantage is an example of good albums that get lost in the depths of surrounding mediocrity. Dave, the mastermind of the band, had to (?) run a kickstarter campaign to fund the production of CDs of this album. Fortunately with success. This means that the band has a very loyal fanbase already and is ready to do more mayhem on the market.

Music of The Strand is quite hard to explain. Especially on this album as it is quite varied. Some of the songs sound a bit like Faderhead ("Six Drink Max"), some vocals sound like Kosheen ("Hey Hey You"). KMFDM influences? I'd say so. Even the BIO section on their website states that: "His songwriting was heavily influenced by the industrial music coming from the Wax Trax record label in Chicago" and you can hear it quite clear in their music, even tho the album has hardly any guitars ("Sintoxication" does). It's not the typical 4x4 club approach. The songs are very clubby but more from a rock concert perspective. This is a good thing. Especially, when we hear trance influences in most of the bands that are promoted right now. This gives us some perspective that there is different music out there. Good music.

Distorted vocals - sometimes the "terrorbanana" ("Death Trap") sometimes a slight overdrive - shouts, gothic choirs and very nice female vocals. It's all here. Very dynamic compositions, good use of synths and catchy melodies (I still have the chorus of "No Thanks" in my head - and that's exactly why I like this band!) . One of the things that I dislike about it is that it ends too quickly! 10 tracks just flow very nice and after you press play you realize it's already the last track on the album and you have to play it over and over again. Or just press repeat. For me it means that the music is well produced, that it doesn't bother me at all.

I really wish that The Strand, eventually visits Europe. Judging from the youtube clips, the gigs have to be 3x the fun the albums are.

Fun Fact: The band created a short film called the same as this album. If you like cyberpunk/steampunk in veins of Mad Max you should like this as well. Check it on out youtube: http://youtu.be/85I9BZYjbPA Mar 18 2013