(Colorado Daily)

After putting out their first record in 1996, the members of Richmond, Virginia’s Engine Down found themselves at a crossroads. Though they were content with their record, they were less then thrilled by the idea of making another one that sounded the same.

Before them lay three distinct paths down which they could take their music. The first would have the band sticking to the strident style from which it cast it’s premier offering, “Under the Pretense of Present Tense.” But the idea of doing the same thing over and over didn’t appeal to the band members.

The next option, breaking up, was equally unappealing. In reality, the members of Engine Down saw only one way to go: they would have to change together.

“I definitely don’t think poorly of anyone who just stays the same,” says the band’s bass player Jason Wood, “I just know that I couldn’t do it.”

Additional motivation for the band to move in a new creative direction came with the introduction of a new singer, Keeley Davis.

“When Keeley came in you could feel the change kind of happening,” says Wood. “He came at a point when the other three of us found a way to express emotions without screaming our heads off.”

Five years later, with its third record “Demure,” Engine Down is a mere shadow of its original self. Following a path similar to that of prog-rockers Cave In, the band transformed it’s aggressive playing style, opening the door for multi-instrumentalism, more technical playing and a panoply of new musical concepts. Chief among them was the idea that aesthetics other than loud and hard could convey emotion.

“You can almost knock people down with subtlety as much as you can blaring at them,” says Wood. “I think the songs on the record are just as abrasive as the older stuff … for different reasons. Just because there’s not screaming and there’s not chunky guitar parts doesn’t mean it’s not as abrasive and intense live.”

Staying together has paid off for Engine Down. In the years since the band’s inception, Wood says the members have grown to understand and be able to interpret each others’ creative contributions and to braid them into Engine Down’s sound. The result is a quieter, but no less subdued sound that is just as engaging as the band’s initial hardcore efforts. Crunch has been replaced with skillful guitar work and screaming has been replaced by Davis’ composed but convincing voice.

“On the third record, we’re more comfortable with decision making and it’s a lot easier to write music because we’ve been a band so long,” says Wood. “We just wanted to bring Keeley’s voice up more and concentrate on the subtleties more than the abrasiveness that we’ve been doing before.”

Though he admits that by altering its vision, Engine Down has probably lost some fans, Wood says it’s an acceptable trade-off for any band.

“Band’s like Cave In who are just completely a hardcore band and then go to what they are doing now, I think that’s such a huge statement,” says Wood. “That’s great, being able to manipulate your sound. You’re kind of giving everyone an opportunity to have something they like. Of course we’re not writing our music for everyone else, but I think it’s great that we can offer a lot more than just one kind of rock line.”

But being known for musical progression can be a double-edged sword. People begin to expect every new album to be a departure the last. It’s not a situation that the members of Engine Down are afraid of, according to Wood.

“I love the rock,” says Wood. “I love writing new rock songs, but I also like putting quieter melodies and things like that in there, and having a song that’s just piano. We’ve often talked about maybe sometime doing an album where we’re not picking up our normal instruments.”

Whether or not an all-piano record ever materializes, Engine Down has cast the die for its future.

“I don’t think we’re going to put out a grindcore record next,” says Wood, “but now that we’ve done this, we’ll build on what we’ve just done as a progression from what we are doing now. I always like to think of what we are going to do as kind of open-ended.”