'Ivy (Doomsday)': The Amity Affliction Try To Change Things Up

Via Triple J's Drive on Wednesday arvo, The Amity Affliction premiered 'Ivy (Doomsday)', taken from their new LP, 'Misery', which lands on August 24th via Roadrunner Records. The big discussion around this track - one that's been raging about this particular band for years now - is whether or not it's the same old drab Amity sound or if it's something fresh? Well, like Amity Affliction or not, anyone who actually listened will tell you that it is indeed different for the Amity's sound. Not a giant 180-shift, mind you, but with small strokes of the brush.

'Ivy (Doomsday)' is a less metalcore take on what Amity have done in the past, with fewer breakdowns too; perhaps a by-product of them working with producer Matt Squire instead of Will Putney this time around. The song reminds me of Bring Me The Horizon circa 'That's The Spirit' (a band that does this kind of songwriting and production infinitely better), making me reminisce of 'Follow You' in more ways than one. It's overall a lighter sound for the Aussie group that, in retrospect, was probably always inevitable following 2014's 'Let The Ocean Take Me' and 2016's career-low 'This Could Be Heartbreak'.

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Amity have used synths, keys, and electronics in their music for years now, and here, those elements have been amplified further. Just listen to the trendy pitch-shifted synth parts that litter much of this new track. Not much has changed in the guitar department for Dan Brown, and as for the drumming, while serviceable, I'm mostly sure it's all been solely programmed now that drummer Ryan Burt has left the band. (He was the last great thing about them too, especially in the live environment. Former A Lot Like Birds drummer Joseph Arrington has been filling in behind the kit for them lately and apparently their also working with Defeater drummer, Joe Longobardi). Much like their plastic-sounding Silverchair cover from 2017, Ahren Stringer takes the vocal lead on this single; with screamer Joel Birch mainly taking the choruses, kinda acting more like a guest vocalist in his own band. Which seems odd from the outside looking in given his frontman position, though he does play a much larger role in the song's music video, for whatever that's worth. But hey, at least Ahren's vocals aren't quite as heavily tuned or as soaked in reverb as they usually are.

Lyrically, Joel isn't necessarily taking aim at mental health and depression like past Amity releases, more so dealing with how a person can grow self-destructive to themselves and those around them - from friends and family, to strangers even. Whether it be through their own self-loathing, drug abuse and other addictions, mental health issues, or all of the above, they are drawn to conflict. Lines in the first verse of "I will cover you like ivy/And choke out all the light" and the chorus of "I could be your doomsday/I could be your worst ever nightmare" deal with this theme directly. You'll find no talk of oceans or anchors here, friends.

And sure, most Amity lyrics, despite their heavy emotional weight, have never been that deep, but they are effective. Beyond that, the lyrics don't seem to be intrinsically woven into the plot of the song's accompanying music video either; more so that they seemed to loosely fit the clip's theme of self-destruction and probably looked/sounded cool in conjunction with the visuals. Whether this song's theme is apart of a wider narrative for their forthcoming LP remains to be seen.

[caption id="attachment_1102940" align="aligncenter" width="636"] Something something misery, something something loves company. [/caption]

Speaking of, written by Joel (is this why he wanted to crowdfund that camera?), the music video for 'Ivy (Doomsday)' begins a three-part tale of a group of mates getting revenge on a man who's wronged someone dear to them. This here video - part one - starts out on Christmas Eve 1981, with the gang of Ahren, Joel and Dan (presumably) coming back to Joel's house after a night out at the pub, chatting about some bloke who nearly got his "block knocked off". Once inside, we soon however learn from (again, presumably) Joel's mother that he's royally fucked up this time and gone too far; that he's lashed out and assaulted someone back at the pub. A brief synopsis of the clip would read something like this:

Joel (Dain) is a violent and emotional wreck; constantly getting himself into strife. He attacks a shady looking random man at the pub one night for leering at women like a creep. Police arrive and Joel rightfully goes to prison for his assault. Five years later in 1986, he learns that the creepy random guy from the pub turned out to be a real piece of shit as he's sexually assaulted a close family friend's partner, Wendy. Now out of jail, Joel plots his revenge with the rest of gang. Roll credits. All with a robbery planned to go down, as hinted at by the final scene and teased by this clip.

It's not a bad music video, truthfully, and it's good to see a large band like Amity trying something different with their videos. It's probably the best shot clip they've ever had, courtesy of Ed Reiss being the director of photography and director Ryan Mackfall, and it's got the most production and structure of any Amity Affliction video to date as well. Though, the whole clip does have this seedy aesthetic of it being a late-night Australian crime drama; like an episode of Underbelly. Just with porno level acting and Australians trying way too hard to put on even thicker Aussie accents, swearing every second line in the process. (Huh, I guess it really is like Underbelly then).

One irritating thing about the video, though, is that it mixes together diegetic and non-diegetic sounds near-constantly across it's seven-minute length. The band did this liberally in 'All Fucked Up', as a recent example. But on 'Ivy (Doomsday)', they've gone all out with that approach. Obviously, there's subtitles used for any dialogue and the plot isn't hard to follow. Problem is, this method distracts from the song itself at times, what with the actual music being broken up so that the narrative can take center stage. Which is all fine in principle, and I can definitely see the band's ambition here, I'm just not sure if it had the best execution.

Gun to my head regarding the song? It's fine, but I won't be listening to it for kicks or anything. Knife to my throat about the music video? I dig it, and am actually keen to see where it goes from here. I'm far more invested in the video than the song itself. After all, recurring narrative videos can be a great story-telling device that (not always, but sometimes) bolster the music on offer. Just look at what Pianos Become The Teeth and director Michael Parks Randa achieved for 'Wait For Love', what with the magical 'Charisma'/'Bitter Red'/'Love On Repeat' three-parter.

Wrapping up, no, the irony isn't lost on me that Amity fans and critics alike are so starved for the band to do something different, that when they're offered a BMTH clone, people become further interested in the song and the new album. Also, the other amusing thing about 'Ivy (Doomsday)' is that because Amity have set the bar so low over the last couple years, an admittedly decent song like this new single suddenly becomes a bonafide banger to many listeners. And if that's not a solid marketing plan - lower expectations so whatever comes next will stand out - than I don't know what the fuck is!

At the end of the day, 'Ivy (Doomsday)' still ultimately sounds like Amity. Which will be great news to some, an eye-roll to others. For me right now, I'm just in the middle somewhere.