Relationship Of Command

CMJ - Picked as CMJ's "#1 Album of the Year" from 2000. Uncut - 5 stars out of 5 - "...[A] riotous fusion of MC5 hairdos and Fugazi sonics....A wired, convulsing fit of an album..." Melody Maker - 4 stars out of 5 - "...From the MC5, to Big Black, to Rage, to Fugazi, to The Make-Up...ATDI effortless assimilate influences to create 2000's most viscerally exhausting album..." Mojo - "...Breathless, urgent rifferama, elements of which can be traced to RATM, The Stooges and...Placebo..." Q - 4 stars out of 5 - "...A vibrant, exciting new arrival." Rolling Stone - Included in Rolling Stone's Top 50 Albums of 2000 - "...Hard-bolied brigands with MC5 guitars and heads full of revolutionary spleen..." CMJ - "...It couldn't sound more 'now', with a timeless intensity and a brutal honesty that rivals the greatest of DC hardcore....With this record, ATDI rockets into the realm of the legendary Fugazi..." Alternative Press - 4 out of 5 - "...They're a rock band who can write stellar hooks....COMMAND is a strong album..." Rolling Stone - 3 stars out of 5 - "...A bracing tonic for our millenial malaise, wrought from equal doses punk, politico-metal-rap and vintage White Panther rage..." Entertainment Weekly - "...At times, ferociously intense, other times stirring, it never fails to excite." - Rating: A NME - 9 out of 10 - "...Absolutely storming....of the 11 tracks contained within, there is not a pedestrian moment...They deliver in style..." Spin - Ranked #5 in Spin's "Top 20 Albums of the Year [2000]" - "...Combines artily abtruse lyrics with thunderously direct guitars...forging a sound [that's] big, thick, and gnarly, capable of evoking the ferocious power of a mushroom cloud..." NME - Ranked #5 in NME's "Top 50 Albums Of The Year". Uncut - 4 stars out of 5 - "[W]ith big anthems lurching out of the turbulence." Q - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[The album] still sounds excellent, at times like a poppy take on Washington art-punks Fugazi, at others like an experimental MC5."

Welcome to the breath-robbing, heart-pounding Relationship of Command, an album many have been waiting for with red-faced anticipation since their last EP, the brilliant Vaya. On this 11-track masterpiece, so full of adrenaline and swarming moods, ATDI has created one of the most infecting and mind-blowing rock albums in a long time. While most of the tracks are of the more aggressive edge, this is undeniably the band's most focused and well put together and, therefore, best all-around album yet. "Quarantined" and "Sleepwalk Capsules" alone make this album worth purchasing: This music is seamless and inspiring. Electronic movements meshed into "Enfilade" stretch the texture of the album further, into the unique backup vocals of Iggy Pop on "Rolodex Propaganda." Amidst all the rock, there is the undeniably unique edge about ATDI's sound, something that has permeated through their music from the Hell Paso 7". Beautiful vocals bursting passion in quirky, abstract, and often thrilling lyrics, youthful energy, driving melodies, and a sense of beyond-the-moment urgency. Moving from Relentless to Grand Royal, as well as to the notorious and mostly infamous producer Ross Robinson, has not killed the band's spirit or sound, as many loyal fans feared it would in the pattern of Jawbreaker, Jawbox, among others. If anything, it has allowed the band to push themselves to new limits, to fulfill what they have been working for relentlessly for so long. This is not a band that could ever be insincere. You can see it in their eyes and feel it in their music and work ethic. ATDI is one of the saviors of true emotional straight-up rock! ~ Blake Butler|