MP3 To The Death - Best Laid Plans...
Earnest modern-hard rock with juxtaposed pop and metal sensibilities.
11 MP3 Songs
ROCK: Modern Rock, METAL/PUNK: Alternative Metal
Details:
When Clark Larsen and Mike Fjerstad came together to form To The Death in April of 2006, they knew they were going to be a rock band, but in a world where “rock” could mean Keane or Fear Factory, this didn’t mean much. Accordingly, they decided early on that the band would operate under three basic assumptions. The first was that they would be their own band. No matter how much they loved their favorite bands, they knew they could never be them; and why should they try? The world already had a perfectly good Mars Volta; a Postal Service; a Radiohead; a Deftones...did it really need another? Furthermore, they knew their influences were much too eclectic for them to ever be happy pigeonholed as just a metal band, a pop band, an emo band, or anything else. Still, only a fool would try to deny all musical influence just to be able to say he was original. The plan then? Rather than trying to shut off all outside influence when writing...rather than filtering out certain musical influences and only letting in those that landed inside a certain genre...this band would let their music be affected by all their wide and varied musical interests, unfiltered in a broad sense. The only thing that would limit the flow of musical inspiration would be the second basic assumption, that they must always do what is right for the song. In a band like To The Death, there would often be a number of right answers for what ought to be done stylistically. In a band that valued a good pop tune just as much as a massive prog-metal epic, the issue of choosing the best answer would have to be based upon putting what the song needed before what the individual member wanted. Just because they could put a ripping guitar solo here did not mean that it belonged there. Hence, a To The Death song could scream at you, or just as easily whisper in your ear; which of the two it was, the members of To The Death could hardly care, just so long as the song told the truth. Finally, the songs had to really “mean something”. When so moved, To The Death would always be willing to throw down a good love song, but they also felt they needed to add their voices to those relatively few who were talking about the moral decay of modern society: the unhealthy isolation of the 20th century and post-20th century individual and the commercial popularity of selfishness and greed that was and is purposefully and effectively making millions complacent and ignorant of the many abuses and atrocities that are happening not just on TV but in their own back yards.
With this identity held close to the heart, To The Death has filled their set list with songs that tell the truth, comfortable and uncomfortable alike. Each song speaks in a different musical language within the rock idiom and reflects the intense musicianship of each member of the band, all the while without ever failing to give the listener a hook to grab onto and a chorus to sing along to. In this way, To The Death has managed in one short year to gain the respect of musicians, producers, radio DJ’s, engineers, promoters, and scores of every-day fans in the Utah music scene. Already known for passionate, intense, high-energy live shows, To The Death is now receiving acclaim for their self-produced full length debut “Best Laid Plans...”, which had a song placed on an “Invisible Children” compilation album, and which had generated several inquiries regarding sync rights for television and film before it had even been released. To The Death is now aggressively booking shows and seeking to further strengthen their position and influence in the Utah music scene even as they prepare to make their first forays out on the road in 2008.