Alexisonfire
Watch Out!
Equal Vision Records
2004 - Over 100,000 copies sold.
Alexisonfire are an often underap-
preciated band. Forming in 2001,
they are considered by many as
being responsible for complete-
ly revolutionising the Canadian
music scene and bringing their
unique brand of post-hardcore to
the world’s attention. They paved
the way for bands such as Can-
cer Bats and Silverstein to break
out of the local scene
and were able to shine a
light on the bands they
considered influences,
such as Billy Talent and
Grade. The four albums
they released before
their initial split in 2011
each achieved platinum
status in Canada, and are
still held as outstanding
examples of what can be
achieved by adopting a
DIY mindset.
The bands second album,
2004’s Watch Out!, was
held up, along with Rise
Against’s Siren Song of the
Counter Culture, Taking
Back Sunday’s Where You
Want To Be and Funer-
al for a Friend’s 2003
Casually Dressed & Deep
in Conversation as being
responsible for the drastic
shift in direction for the
scene, helping to shake off the
generic ‘emo’ tag, and move away
into more hardcore based territory.
Watch Out! struck a perfect bal-
ance musically, never straying too
far either side of what was previ-
ously familiar in 2001’s Alexison-
fire, or so drastically different as
to risk breaking their, at the time,
tenuous grip on a genre that was
just finding its way. Tracks such as
‘Accidents’, ‘Hey, It’s Your Funeral
17 | www.RAMzine.co.uk
Mamma’ and ‘No Transitory’ each
took the melodic/hardcore blend
and moulded it in subtly different
little ways that have an underlying
note of it definitely being an Alex-
isonfire song, but with a hint of
difference every time. The constant
give and take between George Pet-
tit’s raspy screams, guitarist Dallas
Greens soft, yet powerful clean Exorcist, ‘Hey, It’s Your Funeral...’
is of go-karting and further songs
speaking of Kurt Vonnegut and
Macbeth, which adds deeper, often
comedic, often tragic layers to the
album, showing that regardless
of what people said of the band,
they didn’t always take themselves
seriously.
vocals and fellow guitarist Wade
MacNeil vocals combining both of
the previous ensure that each track
was a barrage of non-stop violent
noise. While the band have since re-
leased a number of albums and
EP’s, they split and reformed
and watched the genre they are
responsible for grow and evolve,
it is the success of Watch Out! that
helped launch the band to the
forefront. While they may not have
reached the heights that the fans
feel the band deserve, there is no
denying that directly or indirectly,
they have been a major influence
on so many of the bands currently
around.
The other element that makes
Watch Out! stand out is the subject
matter of many of its tracks. ‘White
Devil’ speaks of the bands expe-
rience with a friends drug use,
‘That Girl Possessed’ is of the true
story behind the 1973 film, The
The album was the last to
feature the original line up.
While the line up has remained
consistent for the duration of
the band’s career, even after
a split in 2011 and reform in
2015. The only change has
been in drummers, with Jesse
Ingelevics departing soon after
the release of the album, to be
replaced with Jordan Hast-
ings in 2005. 2005 also saw
the band take part in the first
of only two of the Switcharoo
Series through Dine Alone
Records. Alongside Canadian
indie-rockers Moneen, ‘The
Switcharoo Series: Alexisonfire
vs. Moneen’ saw each band cov-
er two tracks from each other’s
previous release with unique
little twists.
| Stephen Stanford