Classic Album Series: At the Drive-In - Relationship of Command
The first in our Classic Album series.
Listen to the album on Spotify
It's hard to believe 'Relationship of Command' is ten years old this year.
For those of us who remember its build-up and release - a fevered six months of press hype followed by the jaw-dropping realisation that it was actually, literally, amazing - it doesn't seem like a whole decade has passed since it emerged kicking and screaming from somewhere in Texas.
It's difficult to actually remember the dark days of the late 90s - it was almost so traumatic we just want to suck our thumb and forget it forever. With bands like Limp Bizkit, Papa Roach and Slipknot all slowly morphing into bloated millionaires after nu metal's baggy jeaned worldwide takeover, an album like 'Relationship of Command' seemed absolutely necessary - indeed, vital - to make rock music seem worthwhile again.
Even though At the Drive-In had already been releasing records for a number of years in their home territory, it was only after bringing their incendiary live show to the UK; a series of small club shows and a career-defining (and tent destroying) appearance at the Reading/Leeds festival; that people genuinely started to take notice. Taking up an increasing amount of column inches prior to 'Relationship's release (some even hailing them as the next Nirvana), the El Paso quintet were subject to the kind of mouthwatering hype not seen again until Arctic Monkeys dragged their Stratocasters out of Sheffield a few years later.
The album itself was a total revelation. Ironically produced by Ross Robinson, the man who helmed many a Korn and Slipknot album, it's a thrilling, breathtaking, unashamedly creative body of work. The music itself was focused and sinewy, duel guitars dancing between and bashing into each other at 100mph, while vocalist Cedric Bixler spat baffling cut-and-paste lyrics; poetry twisted and broken into pieces, reassembled over thrilling shards of guitar and drums. Mainstream rock only really got a taste of this with 'One Armed Scissor' - a hit that took even the band themselves by surprise - but it's scattered throughout the album and twisted into marvellous, inspiring shapes at every turn.
It's not all feverish 'post-hardcore', however. Electronic textures and washes of ambient noise are scattered freely throughout, even mid-song, making the abstract punk that surrounds it all even more spirited and urgent. It's a talent for pace, dynamics and soundscapes that's carried right on through to the post-AtD-I projects The Mars Volta and Sparta.
Not only was the music fresh, their politics was too. Despite nu metal giving us a handful of classics, its increasingly macho tone and questionable lyrics - with uncomfortable nods to misogyny and homophobia - left many feeling totally alienated from it. At the Drive-In, coming from a punk scene that thrived on equality, openness and free speech, were a breath of fresh air to many music fans left totally cold by the current sphere of male dominated MTV rock. Their stance on crowdsurfing and moshing, that it was unnecessarily violent and pointless, was ridiculed in some circles. Heavily debated on rock forums and in the press, the fact it created the briefest of dialogues about behaviour at gigs was a triumph in itself.
Their lasting influence on music both here and in the States is undeniable. From Rolo Tomassi to The Blood Brothers, Throats to ...Trail of Dead, Million Dead to Thrice, pick any band who released a punk or rock album in the last ten years and you're likely to find At the Drive-In's fingerprints all over it. 'Relationship of Command' changed the modern rock landscape forever, and we're all the better for it.
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