- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
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The band's grasp of dynamics, both musical and emotional, has deepened, resulting in Long Knives, their most nuanced album yet, with a much more understated approach than on past efforts.
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This is big rock, powerful, aggressive, and impeccably played and produced.
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Alternative PressThey've evolved into a leaner and meaner rock machine. [March 2003, p.98]
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There's a lot to be said for the more refined Rainer Maria.
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BlenderThere's an intensity here that's hard to resist. [#14, p.142]
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What Rainer Maria have lost in scope and audacity they have perhaps gained in sheer accessible melodicism and urgency on Long Knives Drawn.
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The conversational rawness that drove the previous albums is gone, and the band loses something as a result.
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It's not a bad album -- it's just not particularly notable.
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Some of Knives' tunes suffer from [vocalist Caithlin] De Marrais' oversold sentiments.
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[Kyle] Fischer is normally a quite capable guitarist whose antics and energy have been noticed for some time by fans at live shows. However, it seems here that his guitar work is merely meant to tread water, biding time for some big explosion that never seems to come.
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MagnetA half-hearted attempt to outshine 2001's A Better Version Of Me, but lacks all the "Spit And Fire" that made that album so human. [#58, p.105]
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Ultimately, it's the unbearable triteness of the lyrics that does Long Knives Drawn in.