I am so sorry. I'm going to plug my own band again.
Anyway, my band has just made downloads of our EP from Bndcamp free, so it'd be a huge help if you could head over and grab a free download. They're going to be free from now on, and any sharing around would, of course, be most welcome.
http://voragan.bandcamp.com/
That is all from my band for the foreseeable future. I'll post something more interesting soon, but with the exam period looming and, being in my last year of sixth form, this round of arduous essays and painstaking revision sessions are nonetheless very important, so the amount of time I have to do any reviews is being severely cut down as a result. Plus, I'm also focusing on a piece o fictional creative writing I've been working on for almost a year now. It's just tipped the 100,000 word mark and, although I don't expect to send it off for publishing or the like, I'm determined to get it done.
But I'll do my best with what time I have. I'm planning to continue with my Blasts From The Past and perhaps review Darkthrone's latest, which has been out a while...egads, I'm behind. Apologies.
Anyway, thanks for you understanding. That's enough lame-arse excuses for one night.
DETHBLOG
Just Another Metal Blog
Saturday, 9 March 2013
Thursday, 28 February 2013
Bring Me The Horizon - 'Sempiternal' Album Review
Apparently the other day someone tossed a leak of Bring Me The Horizon’s
new album into the savage pit that is the internet. I say apparently because I have no idea as I
don’t give a damn about Bring Me The Horizon. I saw them a few years ago
supporting Bullet For My Valentine at Wembley Arena where they were shocking,
Oli threw a tantrum and they had the power pulled on them.
And so Sempiternal bumbles on. I made it to ‘Crooked Young’ and realised I hadn’t written anything new in my notes for quite a while, and that’s all the excuse I needed to stop listening. So I stopped. It’s undeniable that the album has a little oomph and perhaps a smidgen of energy, but it can’t escape the fact that every section, every song, every riff and idea may as well just be recycled from somewhere in another song. Sempiternal is incredibly dull and boring. I’d even say Sempiternal be a massive disappointment for a “trve” BMTH fan because with their attempt at maturity, the band has lost any fire they once possessed almost completely. What a huge disappointment. Still, it’s not quite as crap as BFMV’s Temper Temper.
On an unrelated subject, 'horizon' has stopped looking like a word.
Also, apparently
their new album, Sempiternal, has been
bought forward to an April the 1st release and you can now listen to
the full album legally on SoundCloud. I wouldn’t know the original scheduled release
date because I had no intention of reviewing this album until I found myself,
today, with nothing better to do. I’d
heard some rumour about this album, though, that painted it in a very positive
light. In the recent release of Metal Hammer, they heralded it as “an absolute
juggernaut of an album” and several other fairly reputable sources have spoken
of its new found depth and maturity, so when I got onto SoundCloud, I had
relatively high expectations for the album (I hated what I heard of their last
two) and hoped to perhaps maybe even have my opinion changed.
Nope.
From the
word go the album failed to meet the expectations I had of it. The first tracks
pretty much summarised the entire album. ‘Can You Feel My Heart’ is a
composition of an annoying, relentlessly repeated synth riff with cuts in after
an unbelievably weak vocals and drums section with some feedback and fuzzy
stuff in the background. This then repeated. And again. And again. And again.
There is little to no variation in the song, which originally led me to believe
it might have been an intro track, until every other song on the album sounded
just like it.
When the second
track, ‘The House Of Wolves’ begins, the “matured” BMTH employ every tactic that
every teenage-boy-scenester-pop-metal- hardcore-crap band have used in every
one of their songs ever. Wild and violent, yet fabulously unimpressive guitars,
angsty, blocky drums and screamy vocals going on about all kinds of overused
cliché rubbish (this song used “brick by brick by brick” and something about “selling
sins” and “saving souls”). The chorus is simple and involves an awful lot of
chanting, be it the odd cliché or the song title. And then, just like that, it’s
finished. The song repeats the same three-or-so sections, most of which were
composed of a toned-down, bass-reduced drum-and-fuzz-and-screams section
followed by the aforementioned hardcore-crap rapid chords. The song goes absolutely
nowhere, there is next to no musical depth or variation.
Perhaps the next
song, ‘Empire (Let Them Sing)’ will be different? No and no. Repeating
open-string riffs, the same muted, drums-and-vocals-and-fuzz section, and a
chanted chorus. Maybe the lyrics are presenting themselves as “matured” yet? No
again, “moths to a flame”, “wolves at my door” and “writing on the walls” all
feature lyrically. So far it is not looking good.
Two more
medicore, copy-pasted songs play before the pre-released ‘Shadow Moses’ starts
playing. Though I never listened to the song, some of my friends on Facebook
have insisted on belting it across my news feed proclaiming it as “incredible”,
“amazing” and a “brilliant new direction”. And, oh look? More muted sections,
open string riffs and cliché lyrics about looking into someone’s eyes and
living your life, yet also going nowhere. I have to admit though, the song has
its energy, the occasional riff carries some weight and force, providing a
splutter of enthusiasm to the album; but it’s impossible to escape the fact
that this is still essentially the same song as all of its predecessors.
And so Sempiternal bumbles on. I made it to ‘Crooked Young’ and realised I hadn’t written anything new in my notes for quite a while, and that’s all the excuse I needed to stop listening. So I stopped. It’s undeniable that the album has a little oomph and perhaps a smidgen of energy, but it can’t escape the fact that every section, every song, every riff and idea may as well just be recycled from somewhere in another song. Sempiternal is incredibly dull and boring. I’d even say Sempiternal be a massive disappointment for a “trve” BMTH fan because with their attempt at maturity, the band has lost any fire they once possessed almost completely. What a huge disappointment. Still, it’s not quite as crap as BFMV’s Temper Temper.
On an unrelated subject, 'horizon' has stopped looking like a word.
Overall – 3.8/10
Sunday, 24 February 2013
Omnium Gatherum - 'Beyond' Album Review
From the content of this blog, it’s fairly obvious to see I’ve been
fairly excited about this release. I’ve been looking forward to Beyond ever since Finnish melodic death
metal acts Omnium Gatherum released New
World Shadows back in 2011, so imagine how happy I was when the new album
arrived two days early.
I wondered what the best way of reviewing Beyond was going to be: listen to it a couple of times to get over
the excitement then write the review, but would that lead to a muted, less
excited and more dull interview? Or just do what I normally do: listen, take
notes, then write the entry out and play the album again. I originally opted
for the first, but as soon as ‘Luoto’ began playing, I had to write in order to
honour this incredible piece of work.
It’s not very often a band does an intro track that’s anything more
than a minute long. It’s also even rarer that a band writes an intro track so
good that it’s worthy of being a standalone song; this is one of those rare
occasions. As soon as the gentle acoustic notes from the beginning of the song
begin to trickle through your speakers, your soul is gripped. As usual, Omnium
Gatherum deliver their carefully thought out, emotionally ambiguous riffs and
melodies, constructing a happy-sad atmosphere and heightening all feelings,
setting you up for what follows. And, oh boy, just you wait. I’m now faced with
a dilemma, I’m not totally sure I can put words together to do this album
justice.
Then ‘New Dynamic’ kicks in, the fast, tapped melody provided on the
guitar, followed by a big, bouncy, very effective riff, then back to a
brilliant melody. Everything here is in balance: the crunchy guitar riffs, the big
and beautifully simple melodies. Everything weaves into and out of everything
else so well, and this then moves to apply to the rest of the album.
The band has cracked it. They have worked out how to get a perfect
balance between clean sections with gentle acoustic passages and massive, heavy
verses and choruses. Everything fits perfectly into place, and this is so
evident to see on ‘White Palace’ and ‘Who Could Say’. The way the songs so
perfectly progress from one section to another is so brilliantly done that you
almost don’t notice. Everything the band does just fits together so well. The
band can be seen, especially on ‘Luoto’, drawing on early ideas from albums
such as Spirits and August Light with
dramatic, slow acoustic sections that fit so well with slow, mournful chords.
But of course, then the new, energetic Omnium Gatherum pick up the energy and
pace with their leads and melodies.
Melodies. Another thing Omnium Gatherum have also cracked. Again, it’s
all in brilliant balance: simplicity, power, energy, melancholy. Powerful,
flashy, yet unbelievable simple melodies re3place acoustic parts on ‘Luoto’,
creating the energy that is carried into the rest of the album, via incredible
guitar and keys work on tracks like ‘The Sonic Sign’ and ‘Living In Me’,
creating some incredible tracks that really, really stand out, such as ‘Who
Could Say’, which is probably the closest thing to melodic death metal perfection
the band have ever created. It’s about as memorable and catchy as a death metal
song could get. Though relatively slow for a death song, everything is just so
well done and out together: dramatic cleans, including Jukka Pelkonen’s glorious deep vocal tones, which
is so well complimented, not just on this one song but the whole album, by interweaving
acoustic melodies, followed by huge heavy verses and massive riffs.
And for all the
guitar-heads out there, Markus Vanhala really does perform quite incredibly on
this album. A lot of brilliant guitarists either lack a little musical ear with
their solos, writing incredibly fast and technical leads that don’t always fit
the song, or brilliant solos that work perfectly with the song but feel a
little flat from lack of ability. Vanhala is neither of these, matching
astonishing lead techniques with an amazing musical ear, building amazingly
memorable solos that are not only technical and complicated, but fit perfectly
with the song and possess great musical qualities; each one could be seen as a
melody in its own right.
Even the introduction track is a masterwork. Everything on this album
is brilliant, even songs such as ‘The Unknowing’ which felt a little weakened
as a single, are given new light and power in the incredible context that is
this amazing album. So much thought and careful processing, planning and unbelievably
talented musicianship has gone into this album, it casts a shadow over
everything else Omnium Gatherum have ever written, and, after the might of New World Shadows, I didn’t think that’d
be possible, but they’ve done it, nonetheless. I’m sad that what will probably
be the album of the year has been released so early on, now there’s nothing to
look forward to, but on the bright side, releasing this early gives me plenty
of time to enjoy it.
Oh look, the Omnium Gatherum happy-sad emotional ambiguity has
returned.
Overall – 9.8/10
Best Song: Who Could Say 10/10
Thursday, 21 February 2013
Just a Little Plug...
I did say to myself when I first started writing this blog that I was going to try and avoid plugging my band.
I've failed.
We recorded this at the end of last year to help a friend with his A2 Media coursework for his A Levels. Only being half of the full-length song, (which is also available on YouTube) which was the titular track from our 2012 EP 'Chaos Dreams'. Mister Castle from theNoise (http://yesthisisnoise.blogspot.co.uk/) gave the EP 4/5 stars, which we were all chuffed to bits with (http://yesthisisnoise.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/ep-review-voragan-chaos-dreams.html ).
That's all. I've leave you be now.
Actually, that's a lie. If you want to do us a favour and buy the EP in either hard or digital format, here are some links.
Download: http://voragan.bandcamp.com/
CD: http://voragan.bigcartel.com/
Okay, I really am done now.
I've failed.
We recorded this at the end of last year to help a friend with his A2 Media coursework for his A Levels. Only being half of the full-length song, (which is also available on YouTube) which was the titular track from our 2012 EP 'Chaos Dreams'. Mister Castle from theNoise (http://yesthisisnoise.blogspot.co.uk/) gave the EP 4/5 stars, which we were all chuffed to bits with (http://
That's all. I've leave you be now.
Actually, that's a lie. If you want to do us a favour and buy the EP in either hard or digital format, here are some links.
Download: http://voragan.bandcamp.com/
CD: http://voragan.bigcartel.com/
Okay, I really am done now.
Monday, 18 February 2013
Blast From The Past: Trivium - 'Ascendancy' Album Review
As a ten or eleven year old (I can’t remember which) I first experienced
Trivium, stumbling across “Dying In Your Arms” on Google Video. My friends Josh
and Hamish, was a massive fanboys at the time, but I wasn’t. I was still pretty
“soft” by my current personal standards, unwilling to sail out beyond the, by
now, well-travelled waters that were Metallica and a little Slayer.
Furthermore, due to my sheltered, middle-class upbringing, my parents had been
reluctant to allow me to have Metallica albums; this “screamy rubbish” was just
too far, as far as they were concerned. Oh, how things have changed.
Trvium played in the Ipswich Reagent Theatre on April the 24th 2007, I must have been twelve or thirteen, supported by Sanctity, Annihilator and Gojira. Of course, at the time I had no idea who these bands were, or even that Trivium had released three albums. I’d listened to the song “Dying In Your Arms” and decided it was alright, so I tagged along with Hamish and Josh (and our respective parents, of course, because we were too young to get in without guardians. How very rock-‘n’-roll.)
Trvium played in the Ipswich Reagent Theatre on April the 24th 2007, I must have been twelve or thirteen, supported by Sanctity, Annihilator and Gojira. Of course, at the time I had no idea who these bands were, or even that Trivium had released three albums. I’d listened to the song “Dying In Your Arms” and decided it was alright, so I tagged along with Hamish and Josh (and our respective parents, of course, because we were too young to get in without guardians. How very rock-‘n’-roll.)
This was my first proper gig, aside from Busted at the O2 arena two or
three years before, and I was really nervous. I didn’t know what or whom to
expect. I’d listened to one Trivium song and now here I was, in a black
Metallica tee-shirt, walking past hordes and hordes of weathered metal veterans
with long hair, huge beards, fat bellies, with black-haired girls in
short-shorts and big boots hanging off their arms. I felt very out of place.
But of course, once inside, the spirit of the metal community shone through,
and looks, age, the fact your parents were with you, didn’t matter a thing.
Everyone was here to enjoy the gig, and enjoy it we did. Maybe a week or so
afterwards, I found myself in town with Josh, stood in the long-since closed
down HMV in the middle of Colchester. There it sat, under the black, bold “TRIVIUM”
divider. Ascendancy.
Back then, a few years since its 2004 release (When they had long hair
and no ear stretchers), for me it was the ultimate rebellion. Overly-angry
verses, long hair, spikey guitars that seemed to play a million notes a minute,
and a vocalist that screamed “fuck” a lot. So, continuing with the theme of “Blasts
From The Past” albums that have made me what I am today, I should continue
onwards, down the road of sadness and disappointment.
After the atmospheric and malignantly evil-sounding intro that is, rather
predictably and disappointingly named “The End, (Nice one guys, not been done a
thousand times before or anything…) the albums starts with the big, crushing,
powerful intro that starts “Rain”. As an early-teen, I was dazzled by Heafy and
Beaulieu’s guitar work, it was a thousand miles from Metallica! Now, five or
six years later, it sounds weak. The cliché metalcore riffs that carry “Rain”
along don’t change much, but complement Matt Heafy’s angry shouts well. So far,
it’s relatively mediocre. It shifts eventually into an equally angry pre-verse,
then a chorus which is little more that Matt Heafy’s weak, wailing clean
singing over some blocky power chords; they feel childish and irrefutably poppy.
On “Rain” especially, Trivium try to use clean singing over guitar harmonies
whilst employing some super-fast drumming. Unfortunately, this sounds strained
and weak, as opposed to climatic and atmospheric, as the bass parts simply just
don’t step up. It’s a catchy start though, and relatively easy to listen to.
The trend continues to the next song, “Pull Harder On The Strings Of Your
Martyr”. It’s listenable, but nothing very special.
Unfortunately, the story doesn’t change as the album continues to slowly
progresses. Every single song is written in a near identical
verse-chorus-verse-chorus-development-solo-chorus-chorus fashion, and it becomes
very tiresome very quickly, especially when transitions from section to section
are weak or non-existent. Sometimes it feels as though the band have simply had
two ideas and decided to jam them next to each other, even if they don’t work,
such is the case on “Drowned And Torn Asunder”, “Like Light To The Flies” and “Departure”.
As the album moves from its first, relatively good songs, riffs become samey
and recycled, as does song structure, falling into the trap of simply using the
same couple of techniques to structure every single chorus and verse.
Solos are a redeeming feature and stick out from the rest of the
mediocrity that the album is rife with. Often well-harmonised and carefully planned, albeit too frequent and
obviously placed, Beaulieu and Heafy often dual back and forth clever leads
that tend to work well with the song. There are points also, when Trivium’s
predictable chorus mixes of clean vocals and chunky chords do work very well,
such as on “suffocating Sight.”
Then “The Deceived” kicks in, just at the point when many listeners
will be tired of the samey songs. This track sits quite proudly in the “All-Time
Favourites”. This is the one track where, in my humble opinion, Trivium just
mange to do everything right: Matt finds his natural range and sorts out his
harmonies, they realise that they’re overusing their normal guitar techniques
and that their drummer can play damn fast and work well with simpler riffs, and
that solos don’t have to be radically fast to be good. Though still in a relatively
predictable structure, it’s easier to forgive them as riffs begin to fit with
vocals and lose the annoying, pointless and painful sweep-picked trills in the
lower guitar octaves that ruin songs such as “Ascendancy”. As a result, though
perhaps a little simpler, the song work a hell of a lot better, as Trivium aren’t
fighting to cram as much as they possibly can into five or so minutes. But the
high from “The Deceived” doesn’t last long, and the final three songs on the
album may as well have been the same.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s very little actually wrong with Ascendancy, there’s just so much wasted
potential. As you listen to the songs, it’s impossible to stop thinking “what
if you’d just done this” or “what if you’d left that out”. On the whole, Ascendancy is terribly mediocre and
heralds the more processed, popularised metalcore/weak thrash Trivium have
released in recent years; but it isn’t without its good points: clever solos,
the occasional powerful chorus, “The Deceived”. For me though, it’s been a good
few years since I listened to this album, and it really isn’t how I remember
it.
Overall – 6.5/10
Best Song: The
Deceived – 9/10
Thursday, 14 February 2013
Blasts From The Past: Metallica - 'Ride The Lightning' Album Review
’ll admit it; a few days ago I was a bit stuffed as to what to review
over the next few weeks. Eternal Tears of Sorrow, Omnium Gatherum, Darkthrone,
Saxon and Vreid are all releasing new material between the 22nd and
26th of this month. But between now and then, I was a bit stuck for
new stuff to review. But then I found
myself in conversation with the legend that is Tom Castle from theNOISE (http://yesthisisnoise.blogspot.co.uk/)
who seemed to be finding himself in a similar position. Eventually we came up
with the idea to review the albums that had inspired us both the most (well,
his idea actually, I’m just taking credit for it) in the run up to where we are
today musically. Personally, I’m looking forward to this, the nostalgia, the
memories, the people associated with these albums. So here we go.
As mentioned in my first post, the first album properly considered ‘metal’
that I bought was none other than Metallica’s Ride The Lightning. I can remember vividly sitting in the back of
Hamish’s car on the way to swimming, thrashing around, air guitar ready, head
banging, to the sheer excellence that is ‘For Whom The Bell Tolls’.
I love this album. I’ve not listened to it for far too long. Here we
have eight tracks of the most brilliant, explosive, genre-defining thrash metal
that you will ever hear. Everything is so full of spirit and fire; Kirk, Cliff
and Het masterfully supply enormous, crushing riffs on iconic tracks such as ‘Fight
Fire With Fire’, ‘For Whom The Bell Tolls’ and ‘Fade To Black’. The big, solid grooves
are like nothing any band has ever produced since; they carry with them such incredible
energy and life, such as the rolling, rapid, energising examples on ‘Trapped
Under Ice’ and ‘Creeping Death’. Even Lars’ drumming, which in recent years has
come under such heavy criticism, although not the best in the world, fits and
works with the music as it should.
Kirk Hammet’s soloing is, in my opinion, at its peak on this album and
Master Of Puppets. Every note he hits
is as it should be; it’s not a huge, sweep-picked, epically tapped,
ultra-technical exercise as you may hear from many musicians today, but it
doesn’t matter, and it never should, rather like Lars’ drumming. The solos he
plays on this album are not the overused “woo look at me I’m in a thrash metal
band, see how fast I can play” load of crap you hear far too often in so many
thrash bands these days. Each is carefully thought out and flows with the feel
and tone of the song. Cliff Burton’s bass virtuoso, although not a huge element
of the album, can still be heard providing a thick, solid frame and foundation to
every song, beefing out the big crunchy guitar riffs and providing the
occasional trill and riff of its own every now and then, modestly shifting the
focus from the other instruments to that which is so often forgotten.
The lyrical content on this album, although perhaps now considered
cliché and overused, thanks to the crappy cliché bands that have come to imitate
bands such as Metallica, Megadeth and Slayer, are very mature and intellectualised
on this album. Lyrics focus on grown-up subjects: death, war and the vengeful
and futile nature of man on ‘Fight Fire With Fire’ alone. The way songs are constructed
is brilliant too: ‘The Call of Ktulu’ summarises the dramatic cleans, big
riffs, great solos, throbbing bass and hammering drums that so perfectly work
together to take the album on an incredible thrash journey. Every beat, every
note, every word, has been given great consideration, and, my god, does it
show.
Every song on this album is so different and varied, but their essence
stays true to the 1980s Metallica that they were when the album was recorded.
Long, chugging riffs on slower tracks such as “Escape” and “For Whom The Bell
Tolls” still sound as true to the pure brutal thrash essence of Metallica as
massive, blasting, fast-paced numbers such as “Creeping Death” and “Fight Fire
With Fire”. Big hair, bigger solos, massive choruses; this is pure thrash,
performed by a true thrash metal band, being played as thrash should be played.
It’s easy to understand why fans of Metallica have been so pissed off
with their recent releases. I mean Lulu,
come on, really? It’s a world, no, a galaxy away the song writing genius
supplied on this close-to-perfection album. Metallica never have been, and
probably never again will be, quite this incredible. People are also very quick
to slag them off for living the lives of celebrities, and perhaps in light of Lulu, St. Anger and Death Magnetic (which wasn’t terrible but, let’s be honest, but
wasn’t exactly brilliant) but as far as I’m concerned, with Kill ‘Em All, Ride The Lightning and Master Of Puppets to their names, are
we really in any position to criticise them for living the high life?
Ride The Lightning is just
incredible. Never is there one moment where this album fails to deliver on any
one level at all. This could well be the best thrash metal record that has ever
been released, and probably ever to be released.
Overall – 9.8/10
Best Song: For Whom The Bell Tolls – 9.6/10
Monday, 11 February 2013
Bullet for my Valentine - 'Temper Temper' Album Review
I remember when I first heard The
Poison. I can’t have been much over ten or eleven years old and the album
instantly connected with me. It was the subtle rebellion that an
adolescent youth, like I was at the
time, needed to begin their own little private rebellion from society: their
parents, their friends, their teachers. Though the original album was an
accomplished piece with some great songs (‘Tears Don’t Fall’ and ‘The End’) you
were never given the impression that the album was written for angry
pubescents. The same can more-or-less be said for 2008’s Scream Aim Fire, a few decent songs (‘Scream Aim Fire’ and ‘Waking
The Demon’) and an overall relatively good piece.
But recently this has been slipping. There is no denying it, with
their 2010 album, Fever, Bullet For
My Valentine began to really play to their audience. Songs became repetitive
and samey, more frequently touching on cliché subjects such as violence and
heartbreak than in the last two albums. Despite this one or two half-decent
numbers were still present on Fever, though the album had nothing on The Poison.
I wonder how the band of 2005 would react if you showed them their
latest release. Temper Temper’s tracklisting
alone is enough to make people cringe in pain. ‘Riot’, ‘Temper Temper’ and
‘Truth Hurts’ are just a few examples of the grumpy-twelve-year-old-song-titles
that the band present, and when the music starts playing, I somewhat doubt cringes
will subside.
The album is nothing more than a commercialised and poor portrayal of
modern metal. Annoying riffs that don’t sound particularly musical or fit with
the songs all-too frequently come stomping through the repetitive,
unimaginative drum-lines and the disappointing vocals. The album starts with a
big, powerful, heavy metal crash, happily thrown forward by ‘Breaking Point’.
Yet it seems the band put all their effort into this broody opening, as the
rest of the song is flat and unimpressive. It’s sad to say, this sets the tone
for the rest of the album.
The following track, ‘Truth Hurts’, sees the band tries to employ the
use of techy, djent-like rhythms. As expected, this sounds awful and sets the
tone for the rest of the song. Matt also tries his hand at some Matthew Bellamy
(Muse) high-pitched cleans. Instead of sounding climatic and epic, as perhaps
they were intended to, (it’s hard to tell where a climax may be, the song
doesn’t go anywhere) he instead achieves the ‘kicked-very-hard-in-the-nuts’
effect and does little more than sound like he’s in uncomfortable pain.
Matt’s voice had never sounded so bad: throughout the album his tone
is grating and sits uncomfortably with the half-hearted, plinky-plonky clean
guitars and repetitive, monotonous riffs. The lyrics have never been so cliché,
either. Almost every chorus on the album is composed the same: slow, simple
drum lines and blocky, two-note power chords. Over the top of this, Matt
repeats the song’s title, followed either by a non-atmospheric echo or a boring
Bullet “woooah-oooah-oooah”.
There is little respite from the boring commercialised garbage in this
album. Padge’s solos do their best, but most of the time it’s too-little
too-late. Yet when the listener is fairly sure all hope is lost, ‘Dead To The
World’ begins. The song, though still pretty repetitive and weak, does provide
a few shreds of atmospheric, almost nostalgic, relief. Perhaps, you think, it’s
not so bad after all. Then ‘Riot’ happens.
There aren’t enough words for how much I detest this song. Straight
away the headache-inducing and mercilessly-repeated single, offbeat C note
kicks in, and doesn’t piss off until the song ends. This mind-numbingly
annoying excuse for a riff is, of course, accompanied by what, in my opinion,
Matt’s best display of angsty-teenager, hormone-induced, rebellion-based crap.
“Run from da sirens, run from da law” is, of course, accompanied by Bullet’s
“woooah-oooah-oooah”. Even worse, Matt seems to take great joy in yelling
“fucking” at every opportunity, rather like the moody twelve year old the band
so appeals to, who has just learnt his first swear-word. To try and compensate
for this dismal display of processed disappointment, Padge shreds like his
popularity depends on it (because, well, it does) in the latter half of the
song.
I used to love Bullet. When this album finally ended a huge wave or
relief and sadness washed over me. I feel sorry for the guys in Bullet, who
used to make up a pretty decent band. This album is a rather large stain on
their careers and the opinions of proper metal fans. Unfortunately, this album
will shoot them to fame with the fans of processed, plastic, mainstream trash,
as it is designed to do so.
Overall – 3/10
Best Song: Dead To The World – 5/10
Worst Song: Riot – 1/10
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