Someday this could all be yours.

June 10, 9:47 PMProvidence Events ExaminerKrystal Grow

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Cover art for "Someday This Could All Be Yours" by The Paper Chase

In the age of global warming and widespread environmental decay, there is only one band suitable to provide the soundtrack to our downfall. That band is The Paper Chase.

After a career of mind bending sonic assault that has tackled themes from technology to the living dead, The Paper Chase have emerged with their most horrifying and humbling effort to date. Their most recent release, "Someday This Could All Be Yours," is the story of the apocalypse, and how we, as human beings, are ultimately powerless in it's presence. The album explores natural disasters and acts of God and their relation to the human condition, and in pure Paper Chase fashion accompanies the tense emotional subject matter with equally terse and oddly melodic songs. Each track on the new release describes a specific destructive force and it's visceral connection to life as we know it. "I'm Going to Heaven With or Without You (The Forest Fire)," is the kind of song that would be a force of nature in itself, but when paired with ringleader John Congleton's lyrics that divulge the domestic condition, and the futility of building the perfect life that could be "gobbled up by flames," at any moment, is poignant and perfectly executed. When we sang "he's got the whole world in his hands" as children, it was comforting, but in Congleton's hands the nursery rhyme becomes a painful reminder that whoever is holding this world could crush it at any moment.

Beyond their capacity for conceptual themes and emotionally heavy songwriting, the Paper Chase shows an equally impressive penchant for paranoid composing. Congleton, a highly regarded producer in his own right, has opened up his psyche and musical vault to create a sound as terrifyingly beautiful as the eye of a hurricane. On past albums, Congleton and The Paper Chase have used siren-like guitar wails and driving drum beats to portray a sense of urgency, fear and anxiety in their songs. This time around, the sirens are sounding at worldwide decibels and drum lines shake like an earthquake. But there is a space to this set of tracks that before might have been filled with horror film samples and Halloween sound effects. While there's no shortage of that here, there is a greater emphasis on strings and melodies to fill the void before it is ripped away by the overwhelming and inevitable dread Congleton and crew usher in with their soundtrack screams and ramshackle yet refined rhythms.

It's been over three years since The Paper Chase released an album, and after the stellar "Now You Are One of Us" was unleashed on 6/06/06, it was clear that the band was a force to be reckoned with. Since then, the band has toured sporadically in their native Texas, but the release of "Someday This Could All Be Yours" brings The Paper Chase to Providence. In what will undoubtedly be an earth shattering performance, the band will perform Saturday, June 27th at AS220, 115 Empire Street in Providence. Bring only what you need, and you may make it out alive.