This live album from the musically talented triumvirate that is Dispatch displays their amazing ability to innovate onstage; you can almost feel the energy that comes offstage in this album. Nothing like "Silent steeples", their more acoustically centered album, Four day trials seems to focus on the more electric side of their music; Braddigan switches aptly between the drums and guitar, having really mastered the drums while remaining a fabulous solo guitarist (his tremolo solo's are mind boggling!), Chad remains the frontman with his hypnotizing folk voice and reggae guitar riffs (though without his dreads!) while Pete finally shows off how amazing of a guitarist he truly is. The album opens with the chilled out"What do you wanna be?" that seems to sum up the album that was recorded in merely four days. Progressing into 'Bullet holes", Pete belts out his saga of lost love with his amazing voice, all the while jumping up and down the neck of his guitar without abandon. The guitar solo is amazing... Dispatch energize their "Bang bang" classic Here we go, progressing then into the musically fascinating Cover this which leads into Mission, a song normally led into with an Eye of the Tiger intro. Hubs and headlights are two fabulous, more reggae, songs... the Beastie Boys cover is awesome, it's good to hear them cover songs from the bands they are influenced by... ie Rage against the machine, Sublime, The Beatles... this is definitely a must buy for anyone who enjoys good music |
| I have all of dispatch's albums, and although this is not the best one, in my view (silent steeples and bang bang, their first two, more accoustic albums were the best) it's still a great album. It was recorded live November 19-22 a few years ago in the studio, and has somre really fun songs. A great addition to your collection! |