1. Aftershock Through The Looking Glass
2. Aftershock Through The Looking Glass

Through the Looking Glass for the most part has much better quality and production than what Letters offered. Not only the production is of quality but the instruments also sound better, more technical or challenging, the drums are more intriguing and the bass is more audible. As for the vocals, either Tobias or Adam, one of the two have incorporated death growls, so this record isn't just an improvement, but it's also heavier.
This album also features new members of this current and final lineup: the blasting, shredding duo from Killswitch Engage that we (the fans) all know and love; one of them obviously being Adam D., but the other one - and the one that replaced Jonathan Donais after he already helped established Shadows Fall, the 19-year-old Joel Stroetzel joined the band. On drums, and seemingly underrated, Tom Gomes also joined the band during that time and he was also with the band during Killswitch Engage's opus magnum and another blueprint to more modern bands, Alive or Just Breathing. And the bassist, Chris Fortin wasn't exactly a full-time member until the second split (with State Craft) was released with the former bassist, Neil Gadbois. Thought after the second split was released, this lineup was solid up until they finally disbanded in 2004, when they returned live to Japan.
Exactly like Letters, there are four tracks which were bad only with this record, it's the two instrumental tracks: the title track and Awaking the Dream. They both sounded like two fillers that didn't complement the music. As for the other two songs, which are Jabberwocky and Impenetrability, they were both straight up bad and didn't sound as good as the other six songs available on this record (and by six I'm also mentioning the vinyl version of this record, which contains the cover of We Just Might by Youth of Today - originally released on the split with the band Dive).
While this album isn't necessarily bad compared to Letters - and the fact that it has a stellar production, the music sounds great, the instruments are top-notch for the genre, that choice of an album cover - whatever, found it interesting, and that it really roots of the music that Adam D. eventually took with him when he formed Killswitch Engage, it didn't strike me with its power like Letters have. As I said, props to the production, the instruments, and even the atmosphere that features some chorus-effected guitars and bass, Letters was more fulfilling and the riffage alone beats Through the Looking Glass. The best songs are Prelude to Forever, Traversing the Gap, and My Own Invention.

Album: 'Through The Looking Glass' (2000) 1. Prelude to Forever 2. Through the Looking Glass 3. Traversing the Gap 5. Living Backward 6. Impenetrability 7. My Own Invention 8. Infinite Confusion 9. Awaking the Dream. Album Through the Looking Glass. Jabberwocky Lyrics. Through the Looking Glass Aftershock. Prelude to Forever 3. Traversing The Gap.

Aftershock - Letters - (7/10)

Published on June 29, 2013

Aftershock Through The Looking Glass

Aftershock were one the pioneering bands of metalcore as we know it. Their sophomore release, Through the Looking Glass, ranks as one of the greatest metalcore releases in history, so it’s almost funny to see how the band got their start. Rather than the extremely heavy handed nature of their sophomore release, Aftershock’s debut full length, Letters, falls more on the metallic tinged hardcore spectrum. I know, I know, it’s all semantics, but the Letters era of Aftershock has more to do with hardcore acts like Integrity and Buried Alive than with the melodic guitar driven metalcore sound of acts like All Out War and Shadows Fall.

With members from soon-to-be-famous acts such as Killswitch Engange and Shadows Fall, Aftershock had quite the lineup going for themselves and it was only a matter of time before the band would unleash royal hell on the world with their follow up album (after a few lineup changes that is). Letters, being the more hardcore tinged album in Aftershock’s discography, is a lesson to all retroists: not all debut albums are the best. The fact that this is more of a hardcore album does not make it inferior, but that along with a whole bunch of other things I’m about to tell you about make it inferior.

Most of the album hosts chugging sections followed by open power chords, like many of the metallic hardcore bands of the time: junt, junt, junt, open chord, junt, junt, junt (read it out loud, it makes more sense). The drums are rather simplistic with an emphasis on slower hardcore drum lines; meaning lots of crash and China cymbal strikes with very loud snare pops. There are double bass sections, but they are usually short lived and are followed by a break into a standard bass, snare, bass, snare beat frequently used by every hardcore band under the sun. It’s fairly generic hardcore with a few metallic twists thrown in. Songs like “God Complex” and “My Laceration” showcase some simplistic yet extremely catchy punk inspired riffing with the aforementioned standard drum beat. It works rather well, given the style, but it gets a little old by the end of the album. Honestly, a lot of this album sounds very samey: chug, chug, chord embellishment; chug, chug, chord embellishment; ad infinitum. Thankfully, there are some parts that stand out here and there but overall everything is fairly standard.

The most notable leanings towards the metal spectrum are the throaty shouts of lead man Tobias Dutkietwicz and the occasional melodic death metal inspired riff or traditional metal inspired lead guitar line. Take the main intro riff and accompanying lead line on “Apparitional State” for instance: the chugging yet melodic power chords build towards a climax while a lofty, melodious lead guitar line surges forward calling to mind the likes of Dark Tranquillity and such. Even moments like that are brought down by a loud and super typical snare versus crash drum beat that could have come from any Hatebreed or Terror album. The drums and bass lines are taken straight from the chugging, breakdown infused school of hardcore, so even when the guitars are top notch psuedo-melodic death metal the rhythm section keeps things firmly rooted on the hardcore side of things. Scattered parts have a very militant drum beat while the guitar lines slowly pulse power chords invoking images of freaking Bolt Thrower, of all bands, but it’s very short lived.

Aftershock Through The Looking Glass

Fortunately, for me at least, Aftershock added more metallic elements into their sophomore release. The guitars were more inspired by death metal than by hardcore and the drums showcased a lot more diversity and branched out from the standard hardcore patterns on display here. You can hear some of the metallic leanings of their future, but it’s sparse. This is one band that got better with time. If you dig the more hardcore sections of Killswitch Engage or bands like Blood Has Been Shed and Twelve Tribes (minus the whiny cleans a lot of them tend to use) then you should dig Letters to no end. It’s not the most original hardcore album out there but it’s decent and passable. I see this as a mere stepping stone; one that helped bring the masses the exceptional Through the Looking Glass.