Against the Dawn by Soviet Bibles: A Review

From left: Brian Wengert, Alex Wypijewski, Michael Garrett

I've never done any serious criticism of music before, and while this may be a review of music, I don't think this will be particularly serious.  So, out of all the college bands out there, why this particular band?  Well, all those other bands didn't practice in my apartment for a year and a half.  Soviet Bibles consisted of Alex "My last name is impossible to pronounce" Wypijewsky on vocals, Michael "Worst person in the world" Garrett on guitar, and Brian "I'm ridiculously attached to my beard" Wengert on bass.  They're all friends of mine, and I've known Michael since high school, and and Brian since middle school.  So, I felt like this had to happen. 

Since this is my story, I get to lead off by saying that I named the band back in the summer of 2012, back when the band was just an idea Brian and Michael had while a bunch of us were driving to Ohio for what were supposedly the greatest hot dogs in the world.  I thought I heard Michael say the phrase "Soviet Bibles", but he didn't.  When I asked about, he immediately claimed it as their band's name.  Anyway, those two were at it for about a year, playing and writing on and off, and it might have been fun for them, it wasn't really going anywhere.  Michael was singing back then, and while he is many things, a singer he is not.  Sorry, Michael.  Here's a link to a song from those days so you can judge for yourself.  I'd like to embed that link, but Blogger couldn't find the video on Youtube, so you'll have to settle for just the link.

The band took a big step up in the second half of 2013 when Soviet Bibles added Alex on vocals, who is actually a very good singer.  With this lineup, they went into overdrive and produced a very respectable album whose vocals were definitely not recorded in a bathroom.  Definitely not.  The album, Against the Dawn, has 12 songs.  If you want a genre, the best I can give you is what they called it: prog-punk, or as I liked to call it, prunk.  Yes, I think that's the best term for it.  Soviet Bibles was definitely the best prunk band out there.

Here's the link to download their album.  It's free, don't worry.

Songs

1.	Mercy and Grace 04:09
2.	Babylon 03:25
3.	Knives 04:29
4.	Halo of Colors 06:16
5.	Warsaw 05:34
6.	To Drown 04:00
7.	Explosions In Our Eyes 02:24
8.	Doubt 03:35
9.	Mercy and Grace (Reprise) 03:02
10.	Museum of Newark 06:40
11.	Babylon (Redux) 04:56
12.	Maps (Bonus track) 03:31

I won't do a song-by-song analysis, because frankly that would take too long.  I will say that the production is very good, considering this was absolutely not done in a professional setting.  The drums are all done by a computer, but you don't really get a sense of that, listening to the music.  Brian is a very good bassist, and Michael is...a guitarist, but the real highlight is the singing, which really does make the album.  It gave the occasionally silly lyrics some much needed gravity, although I'm still not sold on the "Ginsberg is dead" refrain.

This isn't normally my kind of music, but I do like this album.  There's some good music on here, which I never really got the sense of listening to their live performances.  Maybe it came with playing in bars, but this music came off much more punk live, but much more progressive on the album, which I prefer.  Anyway, there are two highlights for me, "Mercy and Grace" and "Halo of Colors".  "Mercy" is surprisingly catchy, even if I got confused about what the chorus actually was.  I asked them to reconsider making the chorus about punching God in the face, but they didn't go for it.  Oh well.  My favorite song by a considerable margin is "Halo of Colors", which I suspect is because I didn't have to hear the formative process.  Since I downloaded the album a few days ago, I've already listened to that song a dozen times.  Alex does an incredible job with the vocals, and the music flows along nicely.  Most of the songs have an intense energy to them, but this one is a bit slower, a bit less frenetic, and I appreciate that.

I won't give this a rating, since I have absolutely no idea what I would rate it.  I will recommend downloading it, since it is a pretty good album, and it sounds pretty good as well.  Just don't hold your breath for a second album, since Soviet Bibles is no longer together.  Yes, this review is a bit late, but better late than never, right?

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