Waxpanel
For Those Left Standing
Pavement Entertainment
2019
Waxpanel is a San Antonio, Texas, trio that has been around in one form or other since 2008. Current members include Micah Lindner (vocals/guitar), Chris Fletcher (bass), and Steve Boldway (drums). The overall style is a post grunge, alternative rock, with Christian lyrics; so normally this is something that I should not enjoy at all, as I am both an old school metalhead and an atheist, but their P.O.D. like style, with less rapping style, is not too hard to listen to… so, I decided to give em a try. Sure, it didn’t exactly make me to see the light, or even seriously rock out, but I can’t dismiss them as tuneless or not emotive, cause they feel invested in what they do and that translates through the music. While their production is not as good as say, P.O.D.’s, it’s clean and balanced, but not entirely clinical.
Having recently joint forces with Pavement Entertainment, the 12 song album “For Those Left Standing” is their sophomore and latest album release following an EP that came out in 2016. Songs like the rather heavy but melodic “The Strugle”, the even heavier and rather claustrophobic (with the exception of its chorus) “Dying Inside” and “Believe” – the latter two selected singles, are some of the better tunes on offer with maybe the prog-ispired riff of “Suitcase” and the more rhythmic nature of “Absolution” being close contestants for the spotlight. Elsewhere, their softer, acoustic efforts sound way too simple and rather predictable. Linder’s voice is rather likable, so they’re not terrible, but really they sound pretty generic.
Their promo sheets claims they have some local success and while that all might be good and true, I can hardly picture them taking the world by storm, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Decent album, for its style, which is not something I can’t say for everything that ends up on my desktop these days.
Having recently joint forces with Pavement Entertainment, the 12 song album “For Those Left Standing” is their sophomore and latest album release following an EP that came out in 2016. Songs like the rather heavy but melodic “The Strugle”, the even heavier and rather claustrophobic (with the exception of its chorus) “Dying Inside” and “Believe” – the latter two selected singles, are some of the better tunes on offer with maybe the prog-ispired riff of “Suitcase” and the more rhythmic nature of “Absolution” being close contestants for the spotlight. Elsewhere, their softer, acoustic efforts sound way too simple and rather predictable. Linder’s voice is rather likable, so they’re not terrible, but really they sound pretty generic.
Their promo sheets claims they have some local success and while that all might be good and true, I can hardly picture them taking the world by storm, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Decent album, for its style, which is not something I can’t say for everything that ends up on my desktop these days.