This year, June is presenting us with a variety of excellent albums by some very exceptional bands. Among these happens to be the Tooth and Nail band, Emery, presenting you with their fourth LP In Shallow Seas We Sail. Following the release of While Broken Hearts Prevail, some people held doubts as to whether Emery would be consistent with the quality they had previously held. This new album proves they have no intentions of disappointing.

Opening with their single “Cutthroat Collapse”, the five members of Emery are making sure that listeners remember how much they loved them when they first released “Walls” in 2005. Smoothly leading the listener into the second song, one can expect the same thing they’ve always loved about Emery: their ability to transition from screams to clean vocals with no apparent effort. Nowadays, it’s not so simple to find a band that can incorporate all of these aspects and still harmonize beautifully. A perfect example of this would be the fourth song on the LP entitled, “Churches and Serial Killers,” in which the combination of heavy and clean vocals are both crushing and exhilarating.

“A Sin to Hold Onto” begins with trademark clean vocals, courtesy of Toby Morell, that will leave you gasping for air. Towards the end of the song, Josh Head enters and croons, “I won’t be part of the riot, I won’t be part of the revolution.” With that and the almost tantalizing guitar and drum accompaniments, Emery has created the ideal ending for one of the strongest tracks off of the LP. The title track off of the album “In Shallow Seas We Sail” is an almost perfect track that incorporates everything that you have ever loved about Emery.  The vocal delivery is practically flawless and if you were to listen to this song before any other on the album, it would tremendously raise the bar for what you expected from this album.

Bringing the album near a close, Emery introduces you to something you are most likely familiar with: couplets. Beginning with “Dear Death Part One,” Morell brings you his smooth vocals over a simple melody, as to not distract you from his voice. But don’t write this song off, because you’re in for quite the surprise when Morrell delivers an outtro to remember. Smooth enough to end an anxiety attack, Morrell brings a tantalizing chant of “Esta noche seras mia” – that’s right, Spanish. Surprised? The line, which translates to ‘this night you will be mine’, fades almost seamlessly into “Dear Death Part Two,” which serves the purpose of going out with a bang, and does so quite well.

While it is an almost flawless album, there’s a sense that something is missing, and after listening several times over, there’s the realization that there is, in fact, something missing. The component that drew so many people to listen to Emery in the first place: tracks similar to those like “In A Win, Win Situation” and “Fractions.” As if Emery weren’t already capable of proving their talent, tracks such as those only glorified it further and would have been the key to a perfect album. Overall, the South Carolina quintet has done an excellent job of providing you with songs that will always hold strong. Applause is in order.

Review by Clarisse Hansard