Queen of the Murder Scene

 

Paulina Villareal (Pau) is a force of nature. Loud and endlessly creative, she is proof of perpetual motion in the abstract. Give her a moment when she doesn't have to be behind her drumkit and Pau practically flies around the stage, barely able to contain the hurricane. Drumming seems to focus her, letting her put all that energy someplace amazing. She also appears to be the main lyricist for The Warning from here on out (more on that later), as well as the main composer. 

Pau, just on her own, has the strength to completely dominate a band.

But then there's Daniella (Dany), Pau's big sister. With an emotional core to match Pau's intensity, Dany takes to leading vocals like a duck to water. While Pau and Ale have a great vocal range, Dany has learned a subtlety to her vocal performances that would be the envy of someone at least double her age. Oh, and she's the rare guitarist without an ego. That may be more impressive, because Dany's guitars thread the needle of being show-stopping and subtle in equal turn.

Both of these sisters, just on their own, could be a band in themselves. It would be downright painful to be a third part in that line up; all competition would be crushed. Especially if it was a third sister. 

But Alejandra Villareal (Ale), like most third borns I've met, sidesteps the problem almost entirely. She loves to play, and play she does. And that's it, if Ale gets what she wants! There's a constant movement in the fandom to get Ale to sing more, which I've found a bit odd. In the live shows I've seen people call to Ale, and she blushes, and then gets back to what she's there for: playing the bass with her sisters. And Ale moves! She IS perpetual motion on a stage. Dancing back and forth, left and right, Ale throws herself into playing in a way I frequently find myself envying. Ale's bass growls and purrs, putting in texture and energy that you wouldn't think the trio would need, but man, it works. You don't hear Ale's bass so much as feel it rattling your bones. It's awesome. That's the last time I'll directly reference Ale.

Somehow I doubt she'll be too broken up about it.  

Put these three sisters together and you get one hell of a show. Dany soaks in the crowd while supporting her sisters, Pau exudes pure power while controlling things from behind the scenes, and a certain someone I said I wouldn't directly reference dances with an instrument that's trying to rattle your teeth in the best way possible.

So when I say their second album, Queen of the Murder Scene, is a fantastic album in its own right and is completely worthy of accolades, just on its own, I hope the above gives that statement some context. Sometimes there are bands that are specifically live bands; you listen to their albums because it's a hold-over till the next show. QotMS is a fantastic album, before you take into account The Warning's stage presence.

Queen of the Murder Scene is a concept album about a fan girl gone killer. It tracks her mental state from bemused, to vulnerable, to obsessed, to dangerous, to rampaging, to suicidal(?). It's a rollercoaster of a ride straight down to Hell, with great (and egoless!!) vocals, instrumentation, and lyrics. The album clocks in at twelve intense tracks, and plays in about an hour.

The vocals on this record are amazing. Pau opens and closes the album, belting out at max volume and going to chillingly quiet, seemingly without strain. I've no idea how the hell she does it, given she's not really taking it easy on the drums. I'm not sure anyone else knows, either. 

The rest of the main vocals are left to Dany. Oh, what a shame that is, let me tell ya! Dany's voice is put to good use here, especially in Stalker, one of the best middle songs I've ever heard on an album. More on that song later. It's a fantastic representation of Dany's emotive and technical ranges. Flipping from achingly vulnerable to roaring to barely a whisper, hardly without breathing, Dany makes it all sound easy. I mean, it's clearly not, but Dany certainly acts like it.

A certain someone I promised not to directly mention again does a lot of the backing vocals, effortlessly providing harmony. She blends well and I have a feeling that's what she'd want to hear. So that's where I'll leave it.

I've always been fascinated by three piece acts. There's a purity, a focus demanded of them that either makes them awful or amazing. Each person has to pull their weight in a very vulnerable way; if you screw up you can't hide behind a second or third guitar. There's definitely some additional effects and melodies The Warning put on here, but ultimately it comes down to their principle parts. Those are incredibly tight and focused; no one felt out of place or unbalanced.

I'll confess to being a bit of a blockhead about drumming. I've almost no sense of rhythm, both musically and in my daily life, and have a hard time hearing drums in particular. Pau is clearly working her butt off and I can hear the others relying upon her.  That is about as much as anyone can get from my uncultured self.

Yeah, I know that's disappointing.

I can tell she's a great drummer, but it's not my thing and I'm not going to pretend it is. If Pau took revenge by smacking me with a drumstick and then burning said stick I'd find that just. I mean, fair is fair. Although, should this ever be read by The Warning, I ask them to intercede in my case until Pau reads the end.

Dany's guitar continuously takes me off guard. Whether it's a soft ballad or the freaking title track (which is a trip through Hell, to put it lightly), she's always finding ways to add depth to the vocals, bass, and drums. Earlier I called Dany ego-less. What I meant by that is that Dany, while extremely technically proficient, seems to take great pains to not call attention to it, preferring to blend and enhance rather than be the star of the show. I keep getting the feeling throughout the album of Dany keeping a constant pulse on the other elements, more concerned with the overall health of the song than any glory she could very, very, very easily get. And if that's not the highest praise I could give a front-(wo)man, I don't know what is.

A certain someone I promised not to directly mention happens to be playing an instrument I've a great amount of bias towards. I adore listening to bass tracks, and will probably go deaf from jacking up the sound enough to hear bass lines. 

I don't have to do that here. The bass is just..well... correct. Every freaking time. And the texture is just sublime, enhancing all the other parts with gusto. I honestly find the bass the star of the show on this album. So there's that.

Pau, read till the end! I'm not done!

Folks, I am a complete snob about lyrics. I'll admit, I listen to one, just one, American band that has a vocalist with lyrics, and that's Switchfoot, because Jon Foreman can write the hell out of anything. This is generally why I stick with post-rock; I don't have to listen to garbage lyrics, and get songs that are more inside of my comfort range, time-wise.

The lyrics on this album are on a whole other level. Dust to Dust actually sparked a full table top RPG, which is just currently cooking in my brain. 

No, seriously. It's on the back burner as I work out Crescendo, but I am actively researching and throwing around concepts. It's a full on combat game that I'm thinking about calling Gnostics. Or Nephilim. We'll see.

Yes, I plan on attempting to mail the girls a copy of the game as a thank you. I don't know if they'd play it, but that's not a bridge I particularly need to cross right now, given the damn thing is in development.

The thing is, these lyrics show a level of sympathy that I'd not really considered before. Maybe it's just me, but there's a lack of authorial bias that I find refreshing. Pau, the main lyricist, seems very intent on chronicling. She assumes the music will contextualize what is being said and so the band leans hard into providing that nonverbal context.

The most important song on the album is Crimson Queen, written by Dany. Without this song the album wouldn't work as well as it does. This brief moment of attempted innocence, the pleading of a lonely soul for meaning in relationship, the consternation and confusion over what is happening to her, is absolutely necessary to the album. Lesser artists would have left this song off the record, trying to stick to "genre". 

The fact that The Warning stuck this part of the character so completely is nothing short of a miracle.

Beyond Dust to Dust and Crimson Queen the standout is Stalker. Quietly menacing, endlessly complex, and deeply disturbed in its honesty, Stalker was the song that convinced me the band knew what it was doing.  This was the moment where the girl snapped. Something went wrong. And she needed more. So. Much. More. She knew it was wrong, but couldn't stop herself anymore. And didn't want to.

I find that sorta thing heartbreakingly beautiful. That sympathy is rare. I wish we saw more of it in our culture.

The rest of the songs on the album continue the through line, and do an admirable job... until This Is The End.

I'll admit, the placement made me chuckle. Sorta like "Less is More" as the ending track for a 17 track Relient K album. There's a self-awareness I appreciate. That being said, This Is The End shows a total sympathy for despair itself. And, like I've said before, I wish we saw more of that kind of sympathy.

So yeah, it's a special album to me. I find I'm a better person and artist for having it around.

Hopefully I won't be walking down the street, only to be knocked on the head by a random pair of drumsticks... Not to mention a bass. The bass may actually kill me, although I doubt the person I promised not to mention directly would waste something that beautiful on my skull.

Drumsticks, though, can be applied in many horrible areas I'd rather not think about. Long, slow painful deaths and all that.

If that happens the authorities can use this blog post as motive.

Y'know, in looking for the Queens of the Murder Scene?

Okay, I may have obscured the culprits just now, for how awful that pun was. Cause if everyone on the planet isn't looking to kill me now then I don't know people.

I mean, I know I thought about it. And I'm the one laughing!