EmoFeaturesHeavy Music HistoryPost-Hardcore

HEAVY MUSIC HISTORY: The Emptiness – Alesana

It’s the year 2010, the Emo and Scene subculture is reaching its peak, the skinny jeans, bright-coloured clothing and long straightened floppy fringes are everywhere accompanied by the sounds of metalcore, deathcore, and pop punk – even crunkcore – can be heard blasting out of iPods. While bands such as BRING ME THE HORIZON, ASKING ALEXANDRIA, PIERCE THE VEIL and SLEEPING WITH SIRENS were leading the charge into the early 2010s, one band – while popular in the USA – gained a cult following in the UK with their third album The Emptiness.

Hailing from Raleigh, North Carolina, ALESANA are undoubtedly one of post-hardcore’s criminally underrated bands. Writing songs with captivating, melancholic storylines based on mythology threaded through their catchy choruses and beastly verses, ALESANA didn’t follow the genre conventions of the time, preferring to write songs in a more melodically and structured way with a focus on layered vocals and harmonised guitar melodies. 

Following on from their 2006 debut On Frail Wings of Vanity and Wax (released in the same year they signed to Fearless Records) and 2008 sophomore Where Myth Fades to Legend – the latter first gaining them attention in the underground post-hardcore scene – The Emptiness saw the North Carolinian quintet go against the grain of their previous two albums and venture in an entirely new direction while retaining the raw energy of their previous releases. Shawn Milke (vocals/guitar) and Dennis Lee (vocals) both had a long-held dream to pen an album based on a story they had written.

While ALESANA were touring in Europe, Milke and Lee decided to create a horror theme for their third upcoming album. Using Edgar Allan Poe as an influence for their work – more specifically, the poem “Annabel Lee” (the author’s last poem) – alongside Poe’s stories “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Cask of Amontillado”, the pair took a year to develop the album’s concept. The pair also stated Stephen King and David Lynch as influences for the album. 

Musically the album is classified as a a rock opera due to its in-depth story, and included strings sections which were composed by Milke and were performed by members of Portland Muse Chamber Ensemble. The Emptiness was recoded in the autumn of 2009 and produced by legendary post-hardcore producer Kris Crummett – who has worked with an extensive list of bands from Rise, Epitaph, Fearless and Sumerian. This was reflected in the album’s sound, as ALESANA sound more polished and with a bigger, layered sound that made the album stand out from their previous work. 

The Emptiness was the first ALESANA album to have official singles The Thespian and To Be Scared by an Owl and the album was released on 26th January 2010. It became ALESANA’s most successful album off the back of those singles, reaching 68th position on the Billboard 200 chart – until its predecessor, 2011’s A Place Where the Sun Is Silent, reached 55th position. 

Despite this success, reviews weren’t favourable towards the album, as it came out at a time when metalcore and post-hardcore were stagnating. Punktastic stated “Too many bands sound like Alesana, so full credit for at least trying to be different with the concept. It’s just a shame the weird and overused screaming ruins a perfectly good attempt at a worn out genre of music.” and Comatorium stating on Sputnik Music; “The album’s main problem is that this has all been done before by Alesana. It’s just a tad more refined and slightly improved, which leads to many of the tracks blending together.” While Sloane Daley of punknews.org slated the album with a 2/5 star rating, stating “There are bits and pieces throughout where the band shows their talent with some nice metallic riffing or a melody that sticks, but taken as a whole it is quite bland and forgettable. The album closer “Annabel” sums up everything wrong with the album: It has a some great guitar parts throughout but with a runtime longer than seven minutes the song, more often than not, concedes to cliches and verbosity.”

On the other hand, AllMusic’s Gregory Heaney was more positive about the album “Musically, Alesana have created an album that will be a surefire pleaser for fans of the genre. The music captures the swirling tempest of emotions presented in the narrative, almost bordering on theatrical. What might give the album a wider appeal is the fact that Alesana are trying to tell a story (albeit a distinctly emo story) with their album. Whether you’re a fan or not, the fact that the band was bold enough to attempt to tame the daunting beast that is the concept album should warrant at least one listen from anyone interested in experiencing this dark musical tale.”

Even if the reviews weren’t favourable, The Emptiness is a much loved album by ALESANA fans. At the time, it attempted to be different in a genre that was fast becoming saturated with bands all sounding similar and reinforcing the cliches of the metalcore genre. ALESANA took themselves out of their comfort zone and fine tuned their sound while upping the quality on their album production. In essence, The Emptiness has an underground classic vibe to it, it’s the band’s most recognisable album and those that love it do so for its compelling narrative and catchy melodic hooks. However, by today’s standards it does sound dated and triggers a nostalgia in those who were there from 2005-2013, as a result sits firmly in the “elder emo” record collection but it’s worth getting out for a guilty pleasure spin now and again.

Alesana - The Emptiness

The Emptiness was originally released on January 26th, 2010 via Fearless Records.

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