Relationship of Command

At the Drive-In | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 9, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Fearless Records
• ASIN: B00068CVJ4
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (262 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,841 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #20 in Music > Alternative Rock > Hardcore & Punk > Post Hardcore
  • #42 in Music > Alternative Rock > Hardcore & Punk > Emo
  • #63 in Music > Alternative Rock > Hardcore & Punk > General AAS

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

It's rare that a band can provide a visceral thrill--Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit", Rage Against the Machine's "Killing in the Name"--and still work the gray matter as well. Here's a band that's refined the art. Hailing from El Paso, Texas, At the Drive-In come poised somewhere between the rabid showmanship of the Make-Up and the complexity of emo pioneers the Lapse, but through sheer adrenaline, they leave both bands choking on their exhaust fumes. Sure, they've got their unique selling point--lead singer Cedric Bixler and guitarist Omar Rodriguez both sport immense Afros--but this band isn't about gimmickry. Recorded after touring with Rage Against the Machine, Relationship of Command is the punk-rock real deal, the angular hardcore dynamic of "One Armed Scissor" and "Rolodex Propaganda" (the latter featuring Iggy Pop) as focused and affecting as any recent American rock. "And the paramedics fell into the wound like a rehired scab at a fair-headed plant, an anaesthetic penance beneath a hail of contraband! / Dancing on the corpses' ashes!" spits Bixler on the album's high-water mark, "Invalid Letter Dept." What does it all mean? Do you really need to ask? --Louis Pattison

Product Description

From 1994-2000, At The Drive-In held the attention of music fans and critics alike. During their career, they released three albums and numerous EPs. You can hear their influence today on so many releases across the rock genre. Members have gone on to form The Mars Volta, Sparta, and various other projects. "Displaying an earnest intensity befitting pre-irony U2, At The Drive-In are an exhilarating and exhausting experience--the sight of five young men ever pushing against and beyond the limits of physical and emotional endurance with crusader zeal"--Rolling Stone.

Seemingly influenced in equal parts by hardcore punk, heavy rock, and modern industrial rap-metal, At the Drive-In provides music tailor-made for head-banging. Unlike such acts as Korn and Limp Bizkit, At the Drive-In isn't afraid to throw in the occasional semi-catchy melody, giving the uninitiated something on which to hang their hat. Other than that, however, there's little in the way of commercial concessions on RELATIONSHIP OF COMMAND. Rampaging guitar riffs, turbo-charged drumming, and super-emotive, lung-challenging vocals are the order of the day. The lyrics are often a bit elliptical, so its sometimes hard to tell exactly what the boys are going on about, but that can work to their advantage too, allowing the listeners to fill in the blanks. Slightly more refined than some of their contemporaries, but undeniably hard-hitting, At the Drive-In stands proudly at the center of circa-2000 heavy rock, and RELATIONSHIP OF COMMAND is their battle cry. In early 2005, look for the "Anthology" CD of greatest hits, exclusive unreleased tracks, rarities, covers, videos, interviews, and exclusive live footage.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Maybe We'll All Catch up to This Some Day, June 14, 2006

By 

Zachary A. Hanson "Jazzpunk" (Tallahassee, FL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Relationship of Command (Audio CD)

Omar and Cedric must have figured out some black magic before they recorded this one with the boys. From the opening distorted and processed squalls materializing from Omar's guitar on "Arc Arsenal," every time a listener rides ATDI's wave on this one it is a mysteriously thrilling experience. One can only say this about a release or two every year. I mean, really, I got this when it came out six years ago (the hyperkinetic video to "One-Armed Scissor" prompted me [see it on _This Station Is Non-Operational_]) and I've never looked back. While I no longer play it three times a day like I did then (never been bored listening after literally hundreds of listenings), I think it's something more like once a month that I listen to it these days. And it's right back into the headbanging, the chills, singing/screaming along with lyrics that still don't make perfect sense to me ("intravenously polite/ it was the walkie-talkies that knocked the pins down/ as her shoes gripped the dirt floor/ in the silhouette of dying"--"Invalid Litter Dept."), but will nonetheless grow with me for the rest of my life, like Joyce's _Finnegans Wake_ or poems by Celan.

Really, this is as good as anything Mars Volta has done (MV is my favorite operating band followed closely by Radiohead and Wilco--hallowed company!). _Relationship of Command_ is really the leaping board to the heights unknown they have reached with MV. It is also the culmination of the considerable accomplishments of ATDI, while representing a quantum leap from their nonetheless excellent preceding LP, _In/Casino Out_. What makes it a diving board to MV is the fact that we hear more of the stratospheric guitar from Omar than we had heard on previous ATDI releases and the song-writing and lyrics are leaning more towards byzantine prog tendencies. What makes it still ATDI and the culmination of everything they did is that it is still just punk, except it is refined by Andy Wallace's huge production skills and the band's (especially Omar's and Cedric's) relentlessly visionary drive. To put it in a nutshell, this rocks you on every level: emotional, intellectual, aesthetic, and mostly your BODY: Cedric and Omar didn't thrash around on-stage like possessed dervishes for the show of it (it's that black magic)!

This is to say that _Relationship of Command_ is the best "punk" CD of this decade and I would be stunned (and delighted) to see anyone come to this level by the end of 2009. Really, as far as pure punk CDs go, I can really only think of Patti Smith, the Clash, and a few other stalwarts who created a product this uniformly mind-shattering. If ATDI had stayed together, they may have been able to top this, but, then again, CDs this brilliant only seem to emanate from the kinds of rough straits that the ATDI members were in at this time, and the impending break-up energy must have had everything to do with the manic surge that crackles from every second of the 45 minutes of this CD. Instead, ATDI broke up and Cedric and Omar chose to infuse their punk roots with prog and in turn came up with something different altogether (prunk?).

Everyone who has any sort of sincere love for extreme music of any sort has to own this one. And if you're not a lover of extreme music? ATDI may just expand your mind with their William Burroughs-style lyrical approach and unceasingly energetic performance/compositional approach. Put this one in a time capsule with a few other CDs to help define what both "punk" and "rock" meant in the first thirty odd years of its existence.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Commanding Rock Masterpiece, December 17, 2001

By 

doomsdayer520 (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Relationship of Command (Audio CD)

This very hardworking band finally hit the jackpot with this astonishing album. After six years of playing in dreary bars to audiences measured in the single digits, and a series of tragically ignored indie albums and EP's, At the Drive-In have delivered a masterpiece with this album. This hard-to-categorize band mixes hard-driving, no-nonsense hard rock with liberal doses of punk, some grunge and metal, and even a little goth in a few places, with masterful musical chops and mesmerizing vocal arrangements. Ignorant critics and listeners who can't describe anything without making comparisons have mistakenly equated this band to Rage Against the Machine, which is inaccurate at best and insulting at worst. Singer Cedric Bixler's voice naturally has a tone similar to Rage's Zack de la Rocha, but that is merely a coincidence and is a hideous reason for comparing the two bands, both vocally and musically. Bixler is an infinitely better singer than Zack (who can hardly even rap), and Bixler sings with true emotion and passion that is extremely rare for a rock frontman these days. Also, comparisons to standard nu-metal make me want to puke. The key to understanding this album is to stop trying to figure out what it slightly sounds like, and realize that Relationship of Command is in its own category.

The best aspects of this album are Bixler's incredible vocals, along with the gut-wrenching backing screams by guitarist Omar Rodriguez. Drummer Tony Hajjar and bassist Paul Himojos are relentless and to-the-point, while Rodriguez and Jim Ward deliver intricate and dramatic guitar interplay. Bixler's lyrics are dense with allegory and metaphor, and you may spend years trying to figure out what he's talking about in many of the songs. Never mind the cranks who criticize the lyrics for being too dense or wordy, and accept them as intelligent, challenging, and thought-provoking. The best tracks here include "Sleepwalk Capsules" which contains stupendous vocal arrangements (by Bixler, Rodriguez, and Ward); the dramatic "Quarantined;" and "Arcarsenal" and "Non Zero Possibility" which are overflowing with emotional power.

As a heavy collector who buys 40-50 new CD's each year, this is my favorite of 2001. I am very upset by reports of this band's breakup (or hiatus). Let's encourage them to get back together.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An aural powerhouse., November 2, 2003

By 

Shotgun Method (NY... No, not *that* NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Relationship of Command (Audio CD)

At The Drive-In has to be among the most unique and hard-to-pigeonhole bands of the 90's. They are too melodic and adventurous for hardcore (even though their level of intensity is close to bands like The Refused), and although they are frequently lumped in as part of the emo genre, there is nothing explicitly "emo" about ATDI--no whiny vocals, no middle school-level poetry about lost girlfriends, and no fake irritating screams that are supposed to evoke "emotion." Relationship Of Command, the band's third and final album, is filled with fast tempos, relentlessly pounding rhythms, dense collages of dissonant sound, killer choruses, and bizarre lyrics with some sort of underlying political meaning--this is 100% ATDI, and nothing else.

This is hands-down one of the most energetic and explosive albums I own. Afro-headed vocalist Cedric Bixler's high vocals are barked/screamed with a force that few can manage, Omar Rodriguez and Jim Ward's guitars lead the assault, and the talented rhythm section hammers it home. Although at first Relationship Of Command may sound like noise, there is a lot of depth beneath the seeming anarchy, and each listen reveals sounds (pianos, melodica, sythesizers, odd effects) that were not heard before. This album is a real grower.

If I haven't made it clear by now every track, from the killer opener Arcanarsenal to the spooky end of Non-Zero Possibility, absolutely rules. Faves include the near-hit One Armed Scissor, the ultra-catchy Enfilade, the brutal Cosmonaut, and Invalid Letter Dept. which contains perhaps the most haunting lyric in the whole thing ("They made sure all the obituaries showed pictures of smoke stacks..").

It's a crying shame that ATDI broke up after releasing this album, but on the other hand I think they would've had a helluva time trying to top this release. Don't fret, however. Cedric and Omar (the truly brilliant members of this band) went on to form the equally unique Mars Volta. Definitely check out Deloused In The Comatorium along with Relationship Of Command. In any case, everyone with a working set of eardrums owes it to themselves to get this record.