Attik Door ‘Never in Agreement’ Review: No Doubt With Extra Grit

Thanks to a gritty, but beautiful female voice, top-notch guitars and eclectic drum and bass work, Bay Area rockers Attik Door’s new album “Never in Agreement” is simply awesome.

Their sound is easily described as a Mad Scientist’s concoction of awesome alternative rock. Part DeVinyls, with some Disturbed, a nice-sized chunk of No Doubt and a side of Fly Leaf, as well as some Red Hot Chili Peppers, Attik Door have a sound that changes from song to song, but it’s always catchy. There’s not a bad song on the album, even if they share a consistent theme of borrowing things from more established bands. But in their defense, not many bands can emulate the elements of such a wide array of talent.

Because of that, Attik Door will immediately catch your ears.

There’s no way around it- lead vocalist Liana Tovmasyan is a treat. It would be easy to call her a younger sounding Gwen Stefani, but she’s so much more. With the accent appearing in some of her work and her pure grit, she’s not the cute punker Stefani is. She’s the type of rocker that’ll outdrink you and slap you in the face before winning you back over with her smile. Ballsy, but smooth, she’s got a ton of depth and heart. In every song she brings something different to the table, from “California,” where she sounds like the new female voice of RHCP, to “The Front,” which could easily be a track on No Doubt’s “Tragic Kingdom.” “Cosmos” is another song that’ll sound familiar, as the opening guitar riff is super similar to Flyleaf’s “All Around Me,” but with a more Stefani-esque vocalization, it has a unique feel to it.

By the end of the album, it’s apparent that Toymasyan is super versatile. She can rap rock, she can wail, she can tantalize like a siren off the Greek Coast. She’s a star in the making.

It also helps that she has a wonderful backing band behind her. Obviously a bar/cover band at one point in their careers, guitarists Alex Shrayber and Tim Shulepov have a polish that defines each song. They’re are definitely the types of guys that grew up on mid-late ‘90s alternative and metal. Their seamless play just screams it. The same goes for bassist and Margarita Grabarova and drummer Igor Boyko, who possess the speed and skill to make a song extra ballsy or groovy. On “Bleed,” the drum and bass work maintains such a consistent speed throughout that you can’t deny their skill. Driving the song from start to finish, you’ll want to put the bass boost up so you can hear it even closer.

At the same time, the familiarity sounds the band consistently experiments with comes with a caveat. The riffs and vocals work off of established and successful tones and sounds. They don’t stretch the medium and as a result, you can say that Attik Door aren’t challenging themselves to create something as new as they could. Rather than redefine, they are masters of the rehash. However, Lady Gaga has made millions of dollars doing the same thin with pop music, so what’s wrong with Attik Door doing the same thing?

Either way you try and spin it, Attik Door’s “Never in Agreement” is the type of album you can leave on repeat for hours at a time. Thanks to an accessible assortment of tunes and a wonderful vocalist with plenty of talent behind her, “Never in Agreement” is one of the best indie rock albums of 2015.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13819 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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