When Long Island pop-punk underdogs The Movielife finally fell apart in 2003, it was hardly unexpected. The band had established a small but devoted following, bolstered by the rise of fellow Long Island bands Taking Back Sunday and Brand New, and were on the roster of the hottest label in the burgeoning scene, Drive Thru. But having weathered six years, a van crash, and a lineup change, the fraying relationship between vocalist Vinnie Caruana and the rest of the band proved too much to bear. So it was with great expectations that Caruana launched his next project, I Am The Avalanche.
 
I Am The Avalanche’s self-titled debut was received somewhat tepidly by critics upon its September 2005 release but has grown in stature in the intervening years. At the time it was being viewed primarily through the lens of emo, then at its height; now, it’s apparent that the album has much more in common with the grimier fringes of mid-90’s alternative then anything that was happening contemporaneously, channeling bits of everyone from Failure to Local H to Fugazi (and yes, there’s a splash of Taking Back Sunday in there too). There’s a kind of slightly-uncomfortable midtempo grind to many of their tracks, and Caruana’s impulse to let his vocals strain their way to blistering implosion recalls Kurt Cobain in style, if not in sound.
 
Indeed, opening track “Dead And Gone” wouldn’t have sounded out of place on any modern rock radio station playlist in 1994, with its soft-loud dynamics, loping crisp bassline, fuzzy distorted guitars and vocal harmonies through the chorus (though the gang vocals are pure New York hardcore). As with much of the album, the lyrics are focused on regret and loss — a girl? his band? it’s all slightly ambiguous in the best way. Caruana’s opening couplet — “At the bottom of a swimming pool // I think I found a clue” — recalls another great opening, the first scene of the movie The Graduate. It’s one of my personal favorite album-openers, strong enough to stand on its own while setting the tone for the rest of the composition.
 
From there, highlights abound. The amelodic, lurching chug of “Green Eyes’” verses bear more than a passing resemblance to the early 90’s work of Melvins and “Bleach”-era Nirvana, and its lyrics (“When she called my sneakers tennis shoes // I knew she was from the west coast;” “I fell in love with a ship, a vessel // with at least 20 holes // but she still floats”) are among the album’s strongest. “I Took A Beating” is as good as pop-punk gets: Caruana’s memorable lyrics married with a guitar riff in the verses ripped from the Sugar-era Bob Mould playbook, a third verse that collapses in on itself, and a double-time outro that finishes as abruptly as it began. And “Symphony”’s chorus (“Promise me, if we both die violently // that the blood dripping from our chin is a symphony”) grows from earnest statement in its first iteration to desperate anthem at its last in a most satisfying way.
 
I Am The Avalanche isn’t a perfect album — the less said about “Murderous’” reggae-inflected verses, the better — but even its low points have a raggedy charm that, at a minimum, keeps things interesting between moments of brilliance. And it’s those little moments — the second when everything but bassist Kellen Robson drops out of the mix amidst the desperate grind of “Always,” the squealing guitar overtones buried in the mix of “Emergency”’s chorus — that elevate the album from good to great.
 
Six years later, following a prolonged legal battle with Drive Thru, I Am The Avalanche are finally entering the studio to record their follow-up. If their debut album was any indication, there is good reason to be hopeful. With their eponymous first release, I Am The Avalanche set their own bar, and they set it high. 

*This review was composed by Jesse Richman