Tentanda Via, Joe

Over the past few months, I've become extremely bored with the idea of just saying that a band sounds like another band, as a shorthand way to describe a band's sound. I know it accomplishes the task at hand, but I just feel lazy doing it. So at the beginning of this week, I resolved to not do that, no matter who or what the music sounded like on this week's album.

And then American Trappist walked in, and of course they sound so much like their influences that comparisons are completely unavoidable.

The easiest place to start is Bruce Springsteen. The Boss's influence is clearest on the first three tracks, but he's all over the album, honestly. This checks out—Bruce Springsteen is awesome, and his sound should be blatantly ripped off. Plus, the main artist behind American Trappist, Joe Michelini, is from New Jersey, and typically, people from Jersey would wear a sweater made from Bruce Springsteen's taint hairs if they were given an opportunity.

If we're being honest, the first song, "Death Wish," is probably more of a rip-off of the War on Drugs. But War on Drugs take a lot of their sound from Bruce, so there's really no point in squabbling about who the rip-off is directed at here. And there's plenty of other shit that I've heard other places. "False Prophet" is Wilco. "Getting Even" is basically "Karma Police." "Nobody's Gonna Get My Soul" could've been on the Men's Tomorrow's Hits. Michelini desperately wants to sound like Tom Petty. I could go on.

And yes, we'll circle back, as we usually do in these reviews, to say something like, "Well, it sounds like X and Y, but X and Y are fucking great, so this is too!" (I've been doing that shit since fucking Week 1). And yes, that's mostly true here.

But for this week, I'll actually go beyond that backhanded compliment, and make it a full-blown praise: Tentanda Via is surprisingly excellent. American Trappist just seems to have an uncanny ability to take the best parts from superior bands and make an amalgam that tastes almost as sweet. This is probably the first time since Record Club began that I have been sincerely caught off guard by how good an album is. It's not the best rock album I've heard this year, but I bopped to this shit hard all week. Good work, everybody.

But I swear to god this is my last "They Sound Like" review!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GRADE: 3.5 pukes out of 5