Alexisonfire are “born to live again” on ‘Otherness’

Photo Credit: Vanessa Heins

Countless artists that constitute independent heavy music scenes are lost to time, with little evidence of their passion and effort beyond some untouched decades-old demo tapes in members’ basements. But there are some who happen to break through, and a few standout acts go on to release genre-defining albums and foster an enduring and dedicated fanbase long after their time as an active band has ended. This is true of Alexisonfire, the Canadian post-hardcore group that dazzled heavy music fans in their home nation and beyond through the 2000s and called it quits early in the 2010s.

While genre labels like “post-hardcore” are broad and nebulous as ever in 2022, Alexisonfire’s early output made them one of the quintessential bands that would play a role in shaping many people’s working definition of this style of music. Their work is regarded as highly influential, particularly with George Pettit’s vicious screams and Dallas Green’s beautiful singing voice being part of their signature sound. Their songs being instrumentally dynamic and emotionally intense are also staple elements of post-hardcore and screamo, but Alexisonfire’s albums were a high-water mark for these styles in terms of originality and songwriting. Twenty years have passed since they released their fervent and erratic debut record and kicked off their ascent to scene royalty, and their last full-length album came out thirteen years ago, followed a few years later by the band’s breakup. Despite Alexisonfire returning to put out a smattering of small releases and play some shows together, nobody ever expected a fifth AOF album. So where does that leave them now?

Enter Otherness, the follow-up to Old Crows / Young Cardinals that was never meant to happen. Guitarist Wade MacNeil told Rock Sound that, as with many creative endeavours over the past few years, the circumstances dealt by the pandemic were a driving force in this project coming to life. When COVID restrictions put all other plans on hold for Pettit, Green, MacNeil, and Alexisonfire bassist Chris Steele and drummer Jordan Hastings, they found themselves getting together to write and record some music. The intention was to maybe put out a few songs, like the stream of singles that have come since 2019, but as they wrote more and more, it became clear that they were working towards an album.

With over a decade’s worth of other projects under the AOF guys’ belts, in genres ranging from hardcore to indie folk to psychedelic rock, it makes sense that Otherness departs from their previous output more than any other release of theirs. However, multiple songs on this album are certainly reminiscent of Crisis and Old Crows / Young Cardinals. An instantly familiar element of lead single “Sweet Dreams of Otherness” is of course the gruff shout of George Pettit, and Dallas Green carrying the catchy melody of the chorus. But this song introduced us to the fuzzier production style and broader sonic palette of Otherness. Fellow single “Reverse the Curse” is derived from an old version of “Young Cardinals” and is unsurprisingly the most true to Crisis and OC / YC era Alexis as a whole. “Conditional Love” similarly shares the fiery energy of the untouchable bangers that brought the band to their peak commercial success in said era, but with a dance-punk spin and a chorus that’s a different kind of catchy, swapping out the classic Dallas Green belt with an incredibly rich group vocal. “Survivors Guilt” and “Dark Night of the Soul” certainly have passages that resemble the later Alexis records as well, with “Dark Night” even containing guitar leads in its verses that harken back to the band’s much earlier work.

Despite these connections to the Alexisonfire lineage, a sizeable amount of material on Otherness is hardly recognizable as coming from the group that put out their previous four albums. There are interesting experimental choices in certain sections, like the quirky synth flourishes within the two aforementioned tracks, but some songs shed all expectations of “what an Alexisonfire song sounds like”. For some of these tracks, it would be reasonable to assume you were listening to new City and Colour work with help on backing vocals from Green’s AOF buddies. “Sans Soleil” in particular is the first song the band has ever put out that could be fit for rock radio in this decade (apart from Canadian stations that now regard the band as a legacy act), reaching a formerly untouched level of accessibility in its sound but also lyrical style, and “Mistaken Information” is a similar offering sonically. The album ends on 8-minute epic “World Stops Turning”, the longest song they have ever released. While they worked their way up to this moment with the brooding slow-burn standalone single “Season of the Flood” from early 2020, the Otherness closing track is a whole other beast. It begins and ends on an acoustic guitar strumming but contains plenty of fanfare in between, including 3 minutes worth of guitar solos with drowned out screams and shouts that continue to churn after the album’s final lyrics are sung – “If the world stops turning, our love will keep on burning”.

The fresh elements presented on Otherness make it by far the most varied listening experience out of all the Alexisonfire albums, with the sequencing of the tracklist being well balanced without consecutive songs ever feeling disjointed. Up until OC / YC, each of their records could reliably be described as being rooted in post-hardcore, if not encompassing the very essence of the genre. They now position themselves as a post-hardcore band making music that does not necessarily fit that label, even in its progression towards being a broad umbrella term, with this album being a diverse display of rock and punk sounds. The band members have said themselves that in the creation of Otherness, they possessed a new level of confidence that removed any apprehension they may have had in the past about crossing genre lines. The group’s mission statement for Otherness declares that “A continuous thread through the fabric of Alexisonfire is the state of otherness,” and though they have always had a unique standing in the scene, they have never been as singular of a group as they are now with the release of this album. Since their inception, this band has been a place for fellow oddballs and outsiders to go to find comfort and community, declaring on Watch Out! track “Get Fighted” – “My greatest gift to you / Is a dance floor / Free from insecurity”. In making Otherness, they were ready to wholeheartedly give that gift back to themselves.