The second full-length album from Evan Canady, Trials and Tribulations showcases a passionate rock appeal — drawing inspiration from Canady’s new 8-string guitar. Alongside his brother Aaron Canady, who mixed and mastered the release, he crafts a sound that impresses in both its dexterous musicianship and spacious, heartfelt atmospherics.
The powerful “Overture” kicks off the album with a firm display of Canady’s dynamic tonal range. Heavy-rock pulses and sporadic haunting choir wordlessness intermingle initially, for a darkly foreboding appeal. A metal-friendly fervency then envelops amidst blaring organs, before a shift into dreamy piano and soaring, twangy guitar work. This enveloping display then shifts into the album’s standout title track, unveiling a lead vocal fervency following a moody prog-rock ascent. Lyrical references to a “sky lit up by fire” exudes an apocalyptic feeling, within societal unrest — “fear and anger breeding terror walking on the wire.” The ensuing questioning — “will you stand in judgment…” — commands in its soul-baring intensity.
The album’s highlights continue thereafter, with “Ride the Wave” being amongst them in its maneuvering from jangling guitar crispness into an ominous “clouds come rolling in” and thunder-cracking signaling to a harder-rock intensity. A commanding presence emanates from the layered vocal passion and resonating instrumentation. “Rise and Shine” also excels in its enjoyable raucousness, while finale “Moments of Contention” infuses piano-laden theatrics within another memorably emotive sound, maneuvering into a relationship-based conversation that pushes back into rock-forward ardor. Trials and Tribulations is a fully memorable showing from Evan Canady.
