Vaux - the Nuest skool emerges

Trends and fads come and go as regularly as cuts of jeans are ‘reinvented’ and we can clearly see that Americans’ taste is gripped by bling-rap and R&B. Only few years ago Nu-Metal and its rap-rock cousin were the preferred choice of youngsters but of late there has been a back-off from guitars set at ‘11’.

That still doesn’t explain why the Vaux’s album has taken almost ten months to appear on this side of the Atlantic. It is a very solid, rocking album that looks toward the future rather that reliving a Groundhog riffage. The band’s second album, ‘There Must Be Some Way To Stop Them’, is a power-surge to singe one’s vegi-burger.

This sextet from Denver, Colorado, are a well-formed and ferocious beast with almost visible passion to rock you to… well, de-stress. Starting out at the basement of guitarist Adam Tymn’s local skateboard store, they went a DIY path that resulted in the 2000 debut LP ‘AudibleNarcotic’.

And, Vaux continue proudly to practice the same self-relying ethic: band member Greg Daniels, who first came to be associated with Vaux as their unofficial roadie and lighting technician, still operates their lights from the stage every night, now while simultaneously manning his guitars and keyboards!?

The band strangely gained recognition on the Warped Tour 2002 when they were forced, halfway through the dates, to switch their tag from Eiffel to Vaux due to legal reasons. That was the past and this is ‘There Must Be Some Way…’ From the off on ‘Set It To Blow’, vocalist Quentin Smith leads his three-guitars strong combo into a punk-ballpark that grabs your heart strings, the attitude further fortified by… Not wishing to obfuscate, we’ll cite someone else’s hyperboles:

“The resulting album is an eardrum-obliterating, skull-bludgeoning, pulse-quickening, goosebump-inducing opus that, refreshingly, can't be tidily compartmentalized in today's marketing-minded world. From tightly wound, Helmet-on-amphetamines paint-peelers like ‘Fame’ and ‘Ride Out Bitch’ to the Sunny Day Real Estate-on-steroids juggernaut ‘Switched On’, from the Radiohead-in-a-knifefight-with-Trail-Of-Dead hyper ballads ‘At Your Will’ and ‘Four-Cornered Lives’ to the sledgehammering, Master Of
Puppets-esque album coda ‘Shot In The Back’…” [Sourced from the official biog.]

There is mania on ‘Switched On’, some prog-range opens for business on ‘At Your Will’, but it is not all-and-only sonic attack and there are moments when keyboards-driven instances recall The Stranglers - on ‘On Love And Cars’. There is a distant echo of Nirvana and Classic rock (drummer Joe McChan has been described as a ‘Keith Moon Jr.’ and ‘mini-John Bonham’), a touch of Britrockism [re: Muse], intelligent hardcore bands like Refused, Ink & Dagger, and At The Drive-In.

“We're not a punk band, we’re not really a hardcore band; however you choose to describe us, this is just very intense, well-thought-out music,” muses bassist Ryder Robison who also likes to eat fire onstage.

And one other thing, these guys manage to cram so much dynamics into 3-minute-songs to sound truly - epic, symphonic, grandiose! Oh yeah, their very first 7-incher was called ‘To Write A Symphony’. And that, it appears, ain’t an idle threat.

Rock symphony for voice and amps? Quite probable…

8/10