Episode 7: Chiodos - 'Bone Palace Ballet'

Sorry for the delay in my writing this, I've been keeping myself busy with some other stuff (like this brief history of trap music that went up on XXL last week!) and I haven't been able to devote too much time to this blog. That kinda sucks, because I don't have a ton to say about this particular release. But let's press on anyway!

A few weeks ago, I wrote about Atreyu and the more-metalcore side of the "scene." Today's band is more along the lines of the punk/post-hardcore side of said scene. Let's dive into some Chiodos.

Chiodos - Bone Palace Ballet (Equal Vision Records, 2007)

Genres: post-hardcore, emo, progressive rock

Producer(s): Casey Bates

RYM Rating: 2.77/5 (ranked 3/4 in band's catalog)

Sputnik Rating: 3.1/5 (ranked 3/4 in band's catalog)

Weeks at #1: One (week of September 22, 2007)

I never really "got" Chiodos. I had plenty of friends who dug them. I went to high school in Saginaw, Michigan. Chiodos was originally from Davison, Michigan, so they were relatively lcoal. They were a staple of friends and acquaintances' mixes. A decent amount of them saw the band live. I heard plenty of their music, and thought it was fine. I don't think I've thought about the band since l was a sophomore, which was about seven years ago.

It never really dawned on me how big Chiodos really were. I didn't quite think of them as a local sensation (they were clearly bigger than that), but I didn't necessarily think of them as a chart-topping band. Though I did miss the band at its peak. By the time I heard of them as a freshman in high school, lead singer Craig Owens had been booted from the band, and their peak was kind of passed with Owens gone. But two years before Owens was ousted, the band topped the Billboard Top Alternative Albums chart.

Bone Palace Ballet is the band's sophomore album, and the last album of their initial Owens-led run (he would re-join the band in 2012 until the band disbanded in 2016). If the album's Wikipedia page is to be believed, it's one of the best-selling post-hardcore albums of all time. I don't necessarily doubt that after learning more about the band (and their ultra-devoted fans). As a note, I will say I'm not reviewing the original version of the album that topped the charts in 2007, but the 2008 Grand Coda reissue, which is the version of the album on Spotify.

One's enjoyment of Chiodos is going to hinge largely on one's perception of Owens. There are bands whose music you can enjoy even if you don't enjoy their vocals. Owens' presence is too great to really ignore. His higher-pitched wail is a defining aspect of the band. I don't personally mind it. If you can get into Circa Survive's Anthony Green or Coheed and Cambria's Claudio Sanchez, you can deal with Owens' as well. I'm kind of into the overdramatic vocal performances that bands like Chiodos use, so I'm good.

The next step will be Owens as a lyricist, which is where he starts to lose me. Even when I barely knew anything about the band, the lyrics struck me as a bit pretentious. He wants you to know that he's read Bukowski (the title of the album is the title of a Bukowski quote) and Vonnegut and Shakespeare. It's very possible he uses those literary references as a crutch to hide his own shortcomings as a writer.

Owens largely writes about love in dramatic fashion. I've seen a large amount of criticism of the band aimed at his more misogynistic lyrics. On "Bulls Make Money, Bears Make Money, Pigs Get Slaughtered," Owens talks about how all girls want to be models and asks, "What's wrong, babe? Did daddy not give you enough attention?" right before suddenly going into deep praise of the girl's looks (by paraphrasing Romeo and Juliet). On "Lexington," he uses the chorus to tell a girl, " You won't be leaving my arms ever, I promise you that/Even if you want me to let go, honey, even if you want me to let go." You could write a whole book filled with the casual misogyny of scene bands (and that's not much different from other genres of rock or music period), but Owens casually going from praising women to putting them down or coming off especially possessive of women at times is a bit off-putting. As much as he sings about the girls in his life, they never come off as more than props in the grand scheme.

The sound of the album mixes a bit of progressive rock into the band's post-hardcore style. Flourishes of strings are placed throughout the album, and give tracks like opener "Two Birds Stoned at Once" and "Life is a Perception of Your Own Reality" a nice symphonic vibe. Album closer "The Undertaker's Thirst for Revenge Is Unquenchable" has piano and strings build quite nicely off a more classic post-hardcore breakdown. Most of the album plays off the same genres and musical motifs, though highlight "Intensity in Ten Cities" is more of a straight-up piano ballad.

These touches do make things sound even more pretentious than Chiodos' previous material, but it works. It evolves the band's sound while keeping enough hooks and riffs to not alienate the band's fans. It reminds me at times of My Chemical Romance's The Black Parade if it were a bit heavier. 

And I'm honestly in on pretentious, proggy post-hardcore music. I listen to The Receiving End of Sirens and The Dear Hunter and Circa Survive and plenty of other bands that hit similar notes. But what kills it for me is Owens, I think he comes across as a bit overly self-serious, and his tendency to quote Shakespeare when he can't think of anything to say himself is too much of a crutch. And while his singing is fine, I don't think it has quite the gravitas as somebody like Anthony Green or Casey Crescenzo.

Bone Palace Ballet is a solid enough album. I can see why it got so much attention at the time, considering the Black Parade comparison. But it's not for me. If Owens lightened up even a little, and if he made the women in his songs feel a bit less secondary in his lyrics, I could see myself digging it more. The music is catchy enough even if a bit samey at times, but it doesn't stand out enough to make up for the weaknesses Owens' presence brings.

Final Rating: 6/10

Chris' Definitive Chiodos Ranking
1. All's Well That Ends Well  (2005)

2. Bone Palace Ballet (2007)

3. Illuminaudio (2010)

4. Devil (2014)

Next Week: I come across a place in the middle of nowhere, with a big black horse and KT Tunstall's Drastic Fantastic