Psychopathic Terror - Revolt

Psychopathic Terror is most commonly known as the much heavier side project of Korpiklaani drummer, Matson. I’ve certainly never heard of these guys (at least not in the metal world), and it sort of makes more sense to me why there are quite a few cyber goths that I know that have heard of them and no metalheads. I’ll go into that topic in great detail in this review.  There isn’t very much that I know about this band other than that I NEVER would have guessed that a Korpiklaani member would be in it, so that alone is an excellent representation of a broad range of musical style and creativity. I guess if I had a statement that I would want people to remember the most, it would be that this is nothing like what I was expecting, it’s not even metal! But remember, it doesn’t have to be metal to be good; I shouldn’t even have to spell out for you that I literally listen to just about every type of music in existence, so I don’t turn things down just because they’re not metal, I was just expecting this to have MORE metal than it does. HERE IS A DISCLAIMER THOUGH: although pretty much everywhere I look says that Matson is in this project, he doesn't take part in THIS specific album, making it pretty much a solo record.

Taking the fact (that I just discovered) that Matson isn't in this album, I find it much more understandable why this record sounds so different. But I listened to some older Psychopathic Terror songs and they still sound drastically different from the Korpiklaani style I was sort of expecting. Although I'm a little bit hazy on the background of the other member...why THIS?? Don’t even ask why, because here’s why: there’s a metal genre called industrial metal (famous alibi include Rob Zombie, Marilyn Manson, Static-X, Dope, and Nine Inch Nails) in which “industrial” computer-generated sounds and effects are placed on top of (and oftentimes weaved into) a faster heavy metal blueprint. Some industrial metal bands use more CGE (computer-generated effects) than others. But Psychopathic Terror is different; take the genre description I just gave you and reverse it. If you did that correctly, you would have come up with industrial/techno/aggrotech music with some metal mixed in. I mean seriously people, the drums sound almost completely synthesized (I thought it was a drum machine), the distorted guitars work in the background instead of being the body of the music like in metal, and the general vibe and sound the album puts off just makes me think of aggrotech and industrial music rather than metal (which is what the band is advertised as being. Remember that there is NOTHING bad about this at all! I listen to plenty of industrial/darkwave/etc. music out there like Angelspit, Suicide Commando, Emilie Autumn, Killing Joke, and Flesh Field. I just wouldn’t consider this band metal.

So enough about me bitching about genres and categorizations, let’s look into the music itself. Honestly, there isn’t very much to it; the overall music and song structure is pretty simple as far as I can tell. As much as I love technicality and complexity in music, it’s always a benefit to have some simplicity in my music world to help calm my brain every once in a while. But remember, simple doesn’t mean slow (complex doesn’t mean fast), because the music is fast. But for the majority of the duration of the record, the speed remains unchanging, which gets VERY boring and monotonous after a couple of songs. BUT, they do keep it interesting by slowing the tempo down every two or so songs. These slower songs, my favorite being Limbo, have a thick beat that would give anyone the urge to headbanging. Limbo is the one that stood out to me the most because it’s the song with the most creativity and color; using several different chord progressions throughout the song and even changing the entire mood and speed during the end of the second half.

I don’t know what’s up with the vocalist, because the vocals aren’t really that good…at all. I guess he sort of sounds like he was on a meth hangover when he recorded the vocals for this record. I can’t hear any emotion whatsoever in his vocals (the crappy recording quality makes it even harder), which is one of my biggest turn-offs in music. Isn’t the whole reason that people make music is to express themselves and their emotions? I mean, what’s music if there isn’t any emotion in it? The kick drumming is all over the place; making me even more skeptical as to if Matson really IS the drummer in this project. But then again, it was probably done on purpose for this project because I know that this guy is capable of better percussion work than this. And after originally writing this review, I came to find out that Matson ISN'T on this album, so now I feel glad that I got that clarified.

Overall, this isn’t something that I would pay TOO much attention to. It’s definitely not metal (although it has lots of metal mixed in); it has more industrial and aggrotech than anything else. But the genre that a record fits in NEVER influences or affects my opinion on it. The reason why I’m not being too sympathetic with these guys is because this is the third record they’ve put out, which means that they’ve had plenty of time to tighten loose knots and tweak their faults; but this record says that they haven’t really done that at all. Although this record is below average, this is a project that I would be very interested in hearing if they take it to the next level and improve themselves. I would give this album 7/20. 

Attack Attack! - This Means War

One of the most hated metal bands of all time is Attack Attack! I was part of the group that was absolutely in love with them when they released their debut full-length in 2008. I still have that CD in my room and I still listen to it. You want to know why I don’t hate it? Because everything about it is so amazing that it outweighs the auto-tune singing that ruined it for most people. Of course my tolerance for that kind of stuff has grown less and less over the years because at the time, I hadn’t heard any of the better bands (which is something everyone goes through). So I never gave up on them, but then when I heard their second vocalist that replaced Austin, I couldn’t stop laughing (read the review I wrote on their self-titled album and click the YouTube links if you haven’t heard him before). Thankfully, their second vocalist soon left the band shortly after the 2009 Warped Tour and was replaced by their keyboardist, Caleb Shomo (I still laugh at his last name). I heard their new album with extremely high hopes and was knocked off my feet with surprise when I heard Caleb’s vocals. He sounded constipated…I’m just going to leave it at that because there’s not much else to it. I lost all except for .00001% of my love and support for Attack Attack! But I still left a tiny bit of hope just in case some miracle occurred and they rose out of the dust and I could say that I never COMPLETELY gave up on them.

Then came the summer of 2011 and I was in a Hot Topic store getting the new Kataklysm CD and some random shirt when I saw that Attack Attack! had released a deluxe version of their self-titled. The reason why I didn’t just ignore it was because the sticker on the wrapping said “FOUR BRAND NEW SONGS!” I had heard previously that the reason Caleb sounded so fucking horrible in the studio was because he was fresh out of surgery (I don’t know what kind, probably getting his tonsils removed or something like that) and Rise Records forced the band to record the album due to the high demands and because well…record labels suck. So that thing he said to me ran across my mind as I saw that CD and I decided to gamble $10 and buy the damn CD just in case my friend was right. And I will never regret doing that, why not? Listen to the first track on the album that bombarded me and put a HUGE smile across my face:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68GWzQAQD4s&ob=av2e.

That song alone was more than enough to win back all of my support PLUS more. Here’s something I forgot to add, they got rid of the ugly auto-tune singer/guitarist; and guess who does the singing…wait for it…CALEB!! I had no idea he could fucking sing like that! And here’s some news for those of you that hate Attack Attack! for other reasons: I didn’t see any “crabcore” shit in that video, did you? I saw legit headbanging that didn’t make me worry that they were going to lose their heads. EVERYTHING has improved, the creativity, the musicianship, the professionalism, the emotions, the effort, the skill, EVERYTHING! That song still remains my favorite Attack Attack! song and hopefully that one song (and the other four new songs on the re-release) will change your opinion on this band. But that was just the beginning.

The day that “The Motivation” was put up for streaming on YouTube, I was all over it. I’m used to Attack Attack! having more of a poppy sound, and oh my…the beginning guitar riffs to that song took me COMPLETELY off guard. That one single contains lead-heavy breakdowns, melodic guitar lines with agonizing and emotional screams to then lead into a more up-beat chorus with paralyzing vocal harmonizations and “frilly” keyboard backgrounds. Before I jump into describing this record, please know that I could care less what the lyrics are and what the songs are about, because IT’S ALL ABOUT THE MUSIC!

The first song off the album is a little bit repetitive by overdoing the simple (but deep) breakdowns, but thankfully there’s only one or two other songs that do that, so it’s not like the band has gone Emmure style. That’s why this song isn’t what I would chose to be the first impression/track, but oh well, the chorus is fucking amazing and won my heart easily. Ok, the second song starts with a more nu metal styled breakdown that makes me want to jump more than headbang. It then leads into an extremely chaotic drum part with little guitars that blends into a faster, seemingly punk rock sounding chorus, then to have the album title called out into an ear-blistering breakdown.

Although there are several songs that have melodic parts, Attack Attack! show you that they mean business and continue to relentlessly bombard you with anger and brutality. Here’s a cool thing that the band most likely did on purpose; the breakdowns get more and more complex with each song, ending with a song that I would easily have mistaken for Meshuggah (if it weren’t for the vocals). There are tons of songs that have poppy keyboards buried in the background that give the song a whole different feel even though you can’t really hear them.

There is one problem with this album that I have yet to overcome. Each song starts off with a breakdown. I mean, it’s fine every once in a while, but it gets a little too predictable and disappointing because with each song, I get more and more excited and hopeful to hear the next song’s intro, hoping that it’s something more interesting. But most of the songs’ intros are relatively short-lived and they don’t all sound EXACTLY the same, so it’s not nearly as bad as it could be and…wait…what the hell was that?? I currently have The Reality playing and did I just hear a dubstep wobble?? Where the hell did that come from!? Okay, there’s another thing I can talk about! That hit me totally without any warning at all. I know the vocalist is into a lot of techno music (and obviously some drum n bass and dubstep). I guess that I was so used to the keyboards being overpowered by the guitars and being used just as a thin overlay to give the music some atmosphere in this album that I wasn’t expecting them to all of a sudden become the center of attention. Honestly, I don’t know what to think of it. I like dubstep (I don’t love it), but it sound’s really weird since it’s being played during one of the heavier breakdowns; but then again it’s really interesting and intriguing that the band would chose to add that in!

Okay, so I heard those four songs on the re-release of their self-titled record and I gave 99.8% of my support back, but held some back because they needed to prove that those songs weren’t flukes by doing it again with a full-length album. You know what? They won back all of my support PLUS more. This is the best album that Attack Attack! has put out so far and I highly recommend that EVERY ONE OF YOU listen to this at least TWICE because it should either cause you to support them again or prove all those rumors to be long gone. I would give this 19/20. 

The Devil Wears Prada - With Roots Above and Branches Below

Anyone who is familiar with screamo even in the least bit should be able to recognize the name “The Devil Wears Prada”. I’ve been listening to them since they first started and I’ve never been fully impressed by them. I used to own Plagues on CD but it most likely got stolen from me (which doesn’t matter cause I’m not completely fond of that album anyway haha). This album was released right when I was in my screamo/metalcore phase where I was almost always listening to stuff like Underoath, Alesana, I am Ghost, Attack Attack!, Killswitch Engage, and God Forbid (all of whom I still love today). So there couldn’t have been a more perfect time for me to hear this album for the first time. After I heard the album, I placed my opinion that I loved it on the table and then jumped on the advantage of seeing them play with All that Remains, Killswitch Engage, and Dark Tranquility. So I had a great first impression by The Devil Wears Prada, but then I stopped listening to them after about a year or so when my musical interests continued to expand and started going in other directions (primarily the more brutal metal genres).

Here’s something that I’ve always known about these guys: their screamer sucks. I’m just going to throw that out so that I can prove to you that I wasn’t COMPLETELY brainwashed and oblivious to the bad parts of music. His screams are better on this album than on Plagues, which is good and shows that he’s been at least making an effort to improve, but they still sound atrocious and make me shake my head in disappointment. The singing is AMAZING though. Like I said in my review of I See Stars’ most recent album, the screamo genre tends to have some of the best male singers I’ve ever heard, and the singer for this band is definitely one of them. If you want to hear his singing without having to be put through the screaming first, listen to Dez Moines.

So now that I’ve described the big fault that this band has, I’m now going to shed some light on the subject by saying that this album is overflowing with creative songwriting. And I personally don’t think I’m over exaggerating because…well…LISTEN TO THE DAMN THING AND TELL ME I’M WRONG! I do know that there is music out there that doesn’t have anything wrong with it, but still doesn’t AMAZE me. Like country music; there are tons of country songs I’ve heard that have nothing wrong with them, but it’s just still not my cup of tea. So it’s completely understandable if this isn’t your thing, but no one will convince me that the songwriting skills on this album are less than mind-blowing.

There are bands out there that overuse breakdowns (i.e. Emmure, Architects, etc.), and The Devil Wears Prada uses a perfect amount. They NEVER have more than two breakdowns in a row (which they only do twice on this record) and they keep the music extremely interesting to then give you the occasional reward of a deep, slower drop in tempo and pitch. For those of you like me that love those bass booms that are played at the beginning of that one breakdown, listen to Big Wiggly Style (I don’t know what the hell that’s supposed to mean…but whatever, it’s amazing). The breakdowns aren’t simple quarter or eighth note beats; the guitarists and drummer shake it up and give you something new and unexpected every time.

There isn’t anything too amazing about any of the other musicians besides the singer, but none of them are bad (of course except for the vocalist who should be replaced by Austin Carlie). Of course, I would assume that most of you are at least somewhat aware of the general size of this band’s fanbase that covers the globe. Although I don’t think that they fully deserve the amount of positive attention they’ve gotten, this record is definitely something worth a good honest listening to. If they replaced their screamer with a better one I would be SO much happier (yes, I know I’ve been repeating that; it’s just to make sure you remember). I would give this album a 16/20. 

I See Stars - The End of the World Party

I’ve known about I See Stars since they released 3D in 2009. At that time, the band didn’t really interest me at all so I never bothered to listen to them. It wasn’t until last year when I saw a girl wearing an I See Stars shirt that I decided it was time that I checked them out. Apparently the band’s popularity has been growing at a fairly steady pace since 2009 and has led to them being fairly successful. So this was the first album that I decided to check out because the ratings on Spirit of Metal were higher for this one than 3D. Honestly, I’m glad that I listened to this album first because 3D isn’t really what I would call “unique” and “impressive”. In this album, there is loads of progression, creativity, and the fusion of other outside genres that you wouldn’t expect to hear in the metal genre. Even though I’m not into screamo nearly as much as I was in 2009-2010, I still have the ability to appreciate the bands that come out of that area (and I still listen to my screamo bands quite often at times).

So it seems that there’s been an ever-growing trend that consists of adding in lots of keyboards, electronics, and techno/pop elements to heavier, highly-distorted screamo music. Some of the more prominent examples of this would be Attack Attack!’s 2008 album, Asking Alexandria, Enter Shikari (whom I’m not fond of), and Dead by April. But I mean there’s that, and then there’s I See Stars. If you don’t get what I mean, listen to the first track off of this record. Don’t think that I’m saying this is a bad thing at all; in fact, I don’t really know what the hell to think of it! But the first track is my favorite off the whole album.

It starts with an interesting breakdownish type of thing that’s obviously a breakdown but it’s not what most people are used to hearing. Mainly because most breakdowns sound like a drop; going from higher notes and tempos to much lower ones. This one has the breakdown BEAT within the drums and guitars, but it doesn’t sound low, in fact, it then drops down into a deeper breakdown that has a DUBSTEP WOBBLE (I bet most of you are going to see the word dubstep and say “forget it, I’m going to go about the rest of my day, bye!” But I like some dubstep (primarily the metal-influenced HEAVY stuff like Excision). But I mean seriously, I wasn’t expecting that AT ALL! Now when I listen to it, I actually feel that it fits the song and even gives it some edge which creates more tension within the music. So after the dubstep breakdown, it then leads into an extremely poppy techno chorus with crystal-clear singing and a seemingly endless amount of keyboard tracks in the background to give the chorus an extremely mystical and atmospheric sound that still causes people to start dancing and partying (pun intended).

I don’t know what it is with almost all of these screamo vocalists being absolutely amazing at screaming. I’ve been screaming for almost four years and I STILL can’t get my vocals to go that high! Of course there are also some of the best singers I’ve ever heard coming out of these bands; but then there’s a large number of singers that use a confusingly large amount of auto-tune. I understand that this is done sometimes for the “digital” sound that it creates so that it can fit the music better, which is fine and even sounds cool in some cases. But most of the SCREAMO singers that use auto-tune use it because they actually need it! THAT IS WHY THEY INVENTED SINGING LESSONS PEOPLE!!! If it weren’t for their crappy guitarist/auto-tune singer, I would love the first Attack Attack! album literally 1000x more than I do now.

In the case of I See Stars, they have a singer that uses auto-tune maybe 24% of the time, which suggests that he’s using it for the sound, because his singing is amazing and extremely crisp without the auto-tune. But in this band’s case where they have tons and tons of electronics and synthesizers backing up the music and giving it a strong techno/pop vibe, the auto-tuned vocals don’t ruin the music most of the time.

There isn’t really anything too profound about any of the musicians. In other words, they’re good for the genre, but not amazing. So an excellent blend of heavy screamo-styled breakdowns, powerful high-pitched screams, beautiful singing, rock parts that remind me so much of Fall out Boy, and techno/pop parts is what I would describe I See Stars to be. This isn’t really the type of music that I would listen to over and over, but it’s pretty good and there isn’t very much that I don’t like about it. The reason why I don’t LOVE this album is just because the impressing elements that this album holds aren’t SUPER impressive. I score this record 13/20. 

First Fragment - The Afterthought Ecstasy

I would place First Fragment in the list of the new and underground sci-fi themed tech death and progressive death bands I’ve discovered over the past two years like The Contortionist, Augury, Dystrophic, Rings of Saturn, The Crinn, Element, and Insidious Decrepancy. Since I’ve been reviewing all of these bands (only three that I haven’t done so far), I figured that now was a good time to review this record known as The Afterthought Ecstasy. And so far, I’ve been quite impressed with how talented and creative the majority of these bands are, in fact, none of them have failed to impress me! But that doesn’t mean that all of these bands are AMAZING; because there are some more mediocre bands on that list that are slightly above average groups. First Fragment is one of those bands that aren’t anywhere near being amazing, but still impress me.

The hardest albums to review are the mediocre ones because that means that there aren’t very many things that are super awesome or make you wish for a papercut to the eyeball. If you’re extremely familiar with the basic general sound of technical death, you’re not very far from describing First Fragment. Their drummer is the member that impressed me the most. I’m surprised that this is still his only band because I would imagine that groups in need of a drummer would be all over him begging him to be their percussionist.

Like I always say, unfortunately, first impressions have a huge influence on your overall opinion on something. In music, it’s the intro or the beginning of the first track. Fortunately, they didn’t completely fuck up with the intro, but it seriously could have been a lot better. It’s simply three hits of the snare that explodes into a breakdown that fades into blast beat-oriented chaos. The first track isn’t anywhere near what I would consider amazing, but it does demonstrate the band’s overall sound and its many branches to prepare you for the rest of the album. The songs consist of simple rhythm guitar lines with explosive blast beat drumming and sweep-picking guitar solos that is decorated with a layer of melodic colors to show that experimentation exists within the band. That’s pretty much all their music is.

The vocalist sounds almost exactly like the vocalist for SWWAATS (Success will Write Apocalypse across the Sky). Of course I know that this isn’t the SWWAATS vocalist because the members of First Fragment are very young compared to SWWAATS (probably fresh out of high school). My favorite kinds of death metal lyrics are the science fiction themes that seem to be influenced by LSD. Of course, this band follows the huge trend of using huge (and sometimes unpronounceable) words. I have no idea why death metal bands do this, but it’s probably because most people don’t know what the words mean unless they look them up; so then they can get their CDs put on the shelves of huge stores like Target and Best Buy.

Overall, this is a pretty good album and is definitely enough to make a tech death junkie satisfied. This album is not very progressive at all; but that never means it’s no good (just like Cannibal Corpse, Suffocation, etc.). First Fragment is definitely a band that holds an inconceivable amount of potential; so I’m expecting their sophomore release to blow my face to pieces (blow me away). I would give this album 14/20.

Lost Inside - Mourning Wept Beside Me

For those of you that don’t already know, I’ve recently become extremely active in the depressive black metal (DBM) scene. In fact, it’s become one of my all-time favorite genres. My first DBM artist (like almost everyone else) was Xasthur. There is a large number of people out there that consider themselves “true” fans of the DBM genre that hate Xasthur because of the amount of success he had during the 15 years of his existence. Personally, Xasthur is one of my favorite “bands” out of all the music that I’ve ever heard (sharing the top of my list with Opeth, Breaking Benjamin, Darkthrone, Mutiny Within, Led Zeppelin, and Ludwig van Beethoven). If you want me to go on and explain depressive black metal in detail and why people like it, read all my Xasthur album reviews, because it’s annoying to feel that I have to repeat it every time I review a DBM record.

Recently, my interest in DBM has exploded as well as the amount of DBM bands in my collection. Some of the DBM bands that have been standing out to me the most include Blutklinge, Woods of Desolation, Original Sin, Abyssic Hate, Velvet Cacoon, A Cloud Forest, and most of all, Lost Inside. This was the first album that I heard by Lost Inside and I’m glad because it is the best I’ve heard out of them so far. The DBM bands that I seem to enjoy more often are the melodic ones instead of the more noisy ones. Lost Inside generally sticks to the melodic side of things, which is what got me hooked on this album.

Once this album has a strong grip on you, it continues to pull you through a seemingly endless tunnel of depressing and grieving tranquility. Your journey through the tunnel lays the heavy blankets of loss and anxiety which then allow you to sink down into a pool of relieving peacefulness. The best music is the music that stirs the strongest emotions within the listener, and there are few records that have as much ability to do that as this one.

There aren’t very many things at all about this album that I would say stand out as major issues. Although relatively simple, the highly-distorted but extremely soft sound of the guitars keep you engaged and never get boring. The chords that the guitars play are actually very complex and perfectly fit the definition of being “truly” melodic. The drums consist of much more than just constant blast beats; there is a lot going on within the mind of the drummer and he lays it out on this album better than on any other Lost Inside record. There is a perfect amount of bass that keeps everything balanced but isn’t overpowering. My favorite song on this album is Like a Wilted Flower for its hypnotizing guitar lines and astonishing vocals.

Overall, Lost Inside has become one of my favorite bands of all-time; and I thank this album because I couldn’t possibly have gotten a better first impression than what this record gave. The vocals are the opposite of annoying and actually have a thick layer of emotion and beauty. This is an album that I would highly recommend to everyone (especially DBM fans that haven’t heard it yet). I would give this record a score of 19/20.

Forthangel - In the End EP

Why does the alternative metal genre suck now!??? I mean seriously, this is the kind of music that I listen to and it brings back old memories of being harassed in middle school and going home and playing a Breaking Benjamin album and using that music to release my anger and frustration. So when I listen to that kind of music, I want it to be good, but almost all of the new alternative metal/nu metal bands I’ve been discovering recently (primarily on Emurg.com) SUCK! THEY SUCK ROTTEN MOLDY PURPLE BANANAS!! And there is a large amount of people out there over the age of 19 that love this! There’s this one reviewer on that website that either has no idea what he’s listening to or that he just hasn’t heard anything better (which is understandable, but still, this guy is a full-grown adult and THIS is what he listens to in his free time??). Forthangel is one of the most disasterous trainwrecks I’ve heard out of the handful of new alternative metal bands I’ve looked up which include Black Water Rising, Like a Storm (more hard rock than metal), End of Story (which is what I want to happen to them as soon as fucking possible), Conflict of Interest, and Inside it Failed (which is exactly what happened to them).

The production quality of this album is HORRIBLE! I mean, in black metal, crappy sound quality is done purposely. But I mean, I can make a recording MYSELF in a garage and produce/mix it MYSELF and make it sound better than this!! Obviously these guys were WAY too deaf to notice that the vocalist was majorly distortion the mic and that the drums and vocals were overpowering and drowning out everything else to the point where you can’t hear the rest of the band at times! But that’s not the only mistake they made.

This kind of music is supposed to sound extremely powerful and emotional (i.e. Breaking Benjamin, Disturbed, Flyleaf, Skillet, and just about every other nu metal and alternative metal band you can find on my favorite bands list on Spirit of Metal). Part of what makes metal sound powerful is loud guitars with a really crunchy distortion and deep meaty bass to give the guitars some cushion. This EP FAILES AT THIS HORRIBLY!!! The guitars are barely even distorted and are extremely quiet (probably because the guitarists suck), which completely ruins everything. I can’t believe I’m the first person on the internet to point this out, because it’s literally the biggest fault this album holds.

The vocalist is terrible. Yes, he can sing in-tune and yes, he’s on-time with the rest of the band, but his singing lacks THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT THING THAT A GOOD SINGER NEEDS TO BE ABLE TO DO!! The thing that his singing doesn’t have is EMOTION. He seriously sounds like he is drunk on his ass and is slurring all his words. His singing sounds dry, boring, dull, colorless, emotionless, and sounds like he has that “This is so boring! I wanna go home and eat chips and watch The Simpsons” kind of attitude.

There is the intro of ONE song that sounds really cool, but other than that, this record isn’t worth your time unless you’re REALLY curious (which isn’t bad at all). I would NOT recommend this to anyone who likes progressive and good music. I would recommend this to anyone who I would want to play a prank on, saying “this band is amazing!!” I would give this album 4/20. 

Like a Storm - The End of the Beginning

I have a feeling that if I heard this when I was 14 years old that I would have loved it a lot more than I do now. I guess that’s because at that time I hadn’t heard anything better than most of the “mainstream” nu metal/alternative metal that I primarily listened to at that time. Although there are still some bands from that time that still stick out to me more than three years later like Breaking Benjamin, Staind, Godsmack, Another Black Day, Flyleaf, Slipknot, Korn, System of a Down, Rage Against the Machine, and Taproot; I guess hearing the whole entire metal genre kind of “ruined” the whole alternative/nu metal thing for me. I went years where I barely even touched most of these bands that I used to listen to, and I’ve started to become curious about where these genres are today. The answer is that it’s not thriving nearly as strongly as it used to in the late 90s to mid-2000s. Of course there are bands that were around during the thriving period that are doing better than ever now like Godsmack, Taproot, Staind, Trapt, Avenged Sevenfold, Deftones, Drowning Pool, Korn (with their 2010 masterpiece that brings back the sound of their old days), and H.I.M. But the majority of the scene has pretty much faded out without much notice. So here’s one of the newer bands of that general genre that quite a few people have been talking about. Just to let you know, this band is more hard rock than metal.

One thing that I forgot about a lot of heavy rock and “mainstream” metal was the extreme simplicity of the overall song structures. That’s probably why most of the alternative/nu metal bands that still stick out to me today happened to have interesting and more complex song structures. But I mean, at least the more popular bands from those times at least had SOME complexity and creativity, because the musicians behind this album FAIL HORRIBLY at doing this. When you listen to Chemical Infatuation, aside from the choruses, tell me how many notes you hear the guitarists/bassist play. For those of you that don’t feel like looking up the song right now, the answer is TWO, two fucking notes! I can’t see how you could honestly think that you could pull that off and make it sound really good. It is possible to make it sound cool, but not if it’s just quarter notes switching back and forth between the two notes with a boring drum line as a “backup”. As much as the band failed at this, there is one thing that took me completely by surprise, and that is the chorus. The song switches from the overly repetitive and boring guitar lines to an explosion of color and tension that actually got my positive attention. The chorus is really good! That is, until it switches back to the two notes played in the beginning of the song.

Every musician in the band is below average in both skill and creativity. The only reason why I don’t consider this record a COMPLETE disaster is because their vocalist is FUCKING AMAZING. He is one of the best singers I’ve ever heard in this type of music. I mean seriously, what the hell does he think he’s doing in this band? He’s the only good thing about them and should quit and start a different band that consists of actual musicians; which will come with a 90% chance of INSTANT success. I’m going to say it again: I can’t begin to describe how powerful and crisp his young voice is! Hopefully he won’t stay with this rock band too much longer and realize that they sound like shit and he’s the only good thing about them.

I saw in another review that there was fusion of a lot of other genres in this album…….um…can you tell me where these “fusions” are? Because I certainly can’t find them! It all just sounds like alternative metal-influenced hard rock with a few ballads (which don’t count as fusing different genres). There are some signs of minimal experimentation on two songs where they add in some string instruments to give the songs a more emotional and melodic feeling.

Remember how I said that this album majorly lacks the complexity and technicality that I like to see in music? Well there are a couple of songs that show this band at least has the potential to write and play songs with some technical guitar lines. Several parts of Just Save Me really impressed me (and actually took me by surprise because I wasn’t expecting it) with their Breaking Benjamin-like guitar/bass lines to give the album some edge. After doing a quick overview of the songs just now to find the other songs that have some technicality and creativity in them, I realized that there aren’t. There is Enemy that just has some extra crunch on the guitars to make it sound heavier and that the last song, Keep the Pain Alive, is actually pretty good and an excellent slower headbanging song that has a strong Shinedown vibe.

Overall, this album is below average. Of course I have a certain level of understanding because this is a new band and this is their very first release. But still, I’ve seen A LOT better out of TONS of other bands. I mean, Black Stone Cherry’s debut release is better than this! And it’s boring and it pretty much sucks bananas! I would score this album a mere 6/20 with the only really good things being the amazing album artwork and the singer. 

Another Black Day - Another Black Day

I have waited almost three years to write a review on this album out of fear that I wouldn’t be able to put my thoughts into words accurately. So I decided it’s time for me to man up and attempt to tell you guys about this group. First off, I would like to say that on Spirit of Metal, I was the only member that had this band on my favorite bands list until I started telling people about them. Having discovered this album when I was primarily listening to nu metal and alternative metal (most notably Korn, Breaking Benjamin, Staind, Flyleaf, Godsmack, and Slipknot), there couldn’t have been a more perfect time for this album to be released (2008). After listening to this record almost constantly for about a year and a half, I realized that I had not heard anything from them….at all. So I looked them up and saw that the “anotherblackday.net” was gone like it had never been there (it was all pink and in Chinese) and their Facebook account had been untouched for years without any announcements or updates regarding a breakup, hiatus, or anything at all.

The commercial success of this album was minimal, with one hit song that got a reasonable spot on the U.S. rock charts; but it didn’t stay there for very long. I can tell because there isn’t anyone that I’ve shown this song to that recognized it. This is extremely shocking to me (and just about everyone I’ve introduced this band to) that they would have so little success and would just disappear out of thin air without notice of any kind (that I know of). So now that I’m done giving you the basic background of the Floridian alternative metal band, Another Black Day, now comes the part of the review I’m worried about screwing up, the music.

Where the fuck do I start?? Let’s run through a basic overview of their sound. There’s nothing too unique about them regarding to their sound; I didn’t have any trouble at all deciding what to categorize them. But even though this young band decided it wasn’t time for them to stride forth and push the limits of the genre, they still created something amazing within the realms. The guitars are EXTREMELY crunchy, making the music sound heavy as a truck-sized block of lead. This is evened out perfectly by sandpaper-rough vocals that still pierce the air with lazar precision and beauty that is filled with emotion. The drummer is amazing for a band of such little seniority and serves as a titanium-strong backbone for the rest of the band to build on top of.

The guitarists are amazing. The rhythm guitarist’s part is never repetitive, boring, or overly simple which works as an amazing background of anger and fury. The cool thing about this band is that the two guitarists take turn during solos, and I can’t tell the difference between the two. Why is this a good thing? It’s a good thing because it shows that the two guitarists are perfectly in sync with each other and think as one mind by using the same distortions, effects, styles, and complexity. This is extremely difficult to do with any instrument and has rarely been pulled off successfully (in my opinion), one of the most well-known examples of this is how all four of The Beatles got all of their singing voices to sound so similar to whenever they sing in unison, it just sounds like one person with a really powerful voice. And besides that, both of the guitarists demonstrate astonishing creativity and emotion all throughout the album.

Most of the songs seem to be about the struggles one experiences in a life of drug addiction and religious confusion. This is most apparent in the title song, Crickets, and Wicked Soul. The rest of the songs seem to basically just be venting of sadness and anger.

The song that was my favorite off the album when I first heard it and remains my favorite track is the title song, Another Black Day. This is one of those songs that pull my emotions to seemingly limitless heights. This track has literally EVERYTHING that I find attractive in music: it’s longer than three minutes, it’s filled with emotion that is heard with ease in all the instruments, it has mind-blowing vocal and guitar harmonizations, it’s progressive, it’s not repetitive, it has tons of bass, none of the instruments drown out the rest of the band, the band is tight, and they sound like a BAND, not just a bunch of musicians. This is the definition of musical perfection in my personal dictionary and I would believe that many of you can at least mostly agree with that definition. That alone should have you listening to that first track by now (if you haven’t, DO IT!).

The band shows their much heavier metal side with ultra-crunchy guitars and double kick drumming in songs like Hallowed, Anymore, Take Back, Crickets, Idols, and many more. Obviously all of the songs are in the same key, which isn’t a bad thing at all as long as the music is still kept interesting. For those of you that like the heavier alternative metal stuff, Idols is the song for you. The guitar intro pretty much shows you right off the bat that these guys mean business. I’ve never heard a guitar distortion with so much crunch in that kind of music in my life, obviously these aren’t guys that just think they’re “heavy rock with some metal”, they know they’re metal and aren’t afraid to show it. Remember, I’m probably a bigger rock fan than you so don’t think that I’ll like something less just because it’s not metal. The center of all the vocalist’s anger is confined in this track by showing tense vocals filled with frustration and hate towards our corrupted world.

The single off this album that got some air time (mainly in Florida) is Wicked Soul. Well although I’m not surprised by the fact that they got any air time at all, I’m puzzled why this was the song that spoke out to the critics as being the best song instead of the first song. Then again, besides the title track, I guess I would have to say that this is my next favorite song off this astonishing shiny disk. Wicked Soul is the only song with acoustic guitars and truly soft and melodic parts. The cool thing is that they perfectly steadily build up to the explosion of distorted guitars and gravely vocals in the chorus, but still succeed in remaining soft and ballad-like. This is actually where the singer is at his highest point, in Wicked Soul. I guess because vocals that are always belted out and almost yelled don’t speak out to me as much as softer vocals with more emotion and delicacy.

Here’s something for you power metal fans: listen to the last song and tell me what it reminds you of. Why does From the Ashes remind me of a combination of Symphony X and Nevermore?? I guess it’s because it has the song structure complexity and technicality of Symphony X and has the darkness and heaviness of Nevermore spread on top of it. Regardless of whether that sounds good to you or not, I fucking love it, and NOTHING will change that.

In conclusion, this is an album that I bought the instant I heard it in 2008 when it was released and continues to be one of my favorite albums of all time. There is still a lot of things that I love about this album that remain unexplainable. I wish I could put my FULL opinion of this album into words, but I can’t no matter how hard I try. I guess it’s one of those things where it’s not a specific trait or thing you like about it, it’s just that you feel a special connection to the music when you listen to it that you can’t explain. I know that there will be tons of people that don’t get the same connection with this band that I do, but this is still a record that you should give a good honest try before you judge it. Lastly, if there is ANYONE who knows ANYTHING about what happened to this band or where they are now, PLEASE leave a comment because I need to know. I would give this a perfect score (just in case I didn’t make it clear enough).  

Sunn O))) - ØØ Void

Sunn O))) is one of the most unique groups of all time and I am proud to say that despite what I probably have made you believe about my views on music, they are also one of my favorite bands of all time. Sunn O))) is a group of slightly older guys that are freakishly crazy about enormous tube amps with speaker cabinets the size of a small refrigerator. In fact, they’re named after a brand of guitar and bass amps that were made from the 60s through the mid-80s. For those of you that can’t figure out how the hell to pronounce their name, it’s simply pronounced “sun”. When people ask me if I like Sunn O))), I always say that I LOVE both the band and the amp. I’m a bassist and have actually had the pleasure to hook my fretless bass guitar up to one of these dinosaurs; even though I have yet to experience the pleasure of having one as my own. This is the re-release of their first album and I currently own it on 180 gram vinyl.

If you’re going to tell me that “this isn’t music! It’s just all noise and guitar feedback!” you’d be right. Although music knows no limits, I personally don’t consider Sunn O))) to be musical at all (but I wouldn’t be surprised if there are people out there that do). For those of you that haven’t read any of my Xasthur reviews, I said that the reason people like this stuff isn’t because of the musicians’ skill or creativity, they like it because of the emotions that it creates within the listener. Xasthur is a great example of that, although there are tons of creative guitar lines. Sunn O))) on the other hand takes this statement to extreme heights. Here’s what I want you to do, look up either this album or the song Flight of the Behemoth, turn off ALL the lights, and play the music at a loud volume (as loud as you feel like). The people that listen to this music surrender to it, letting the music encircle them and flow through them freely. Sunn O))) hypnotizes me whenever I listen to them; I get sucked in by them more than any other band has ever before. Warning: results may vary, I’m guaranteeing that the music will create strong emotions if you let it; I’m not saying the listening experience will always be pleasant. In my case, though, it’s pleasant every time.

This particular record consists of two guitars and a bass guitar that are tuned down so low I can’t even tell what the hell it is. There are no drums anywhere in the album, making the ambience and atmosphere reach extreme levels while leaving virtually no tempo for you to nod your head to; all you can do is just sit, close your eyes, and listen. When I listen to this band, I’m not looking for them to keep me engaged, not be repetitive, or be creative. In fact, I literally can’t due to the fact of not being able to acknowledge or think while listening to them because of them virtually encircling me and pulling me in with no signs of letting me go.

Obviously, I got the vinyl version because I think that it sounds better than an electronic copy or a CD. For those of you old farts out there that lived through the 70s, you should be able to understand what I’m saying when I tell you my dad is an “audiophile”. For those of you that have no idea what the fuck I’m talking about, there were two types of vinyl LPs: regular ones, and audiophile ones (yes I know that there are others like quadraphonic, etc.). Audiophile LPs sound literally 100 times better than regular LPs because they weigh more, sort of like how today’s Super Audio CDs sound a million times better than regular CDs. And when a person is reffered to as an audiophile, it means they’re a freak about super high-quality sound. When I handed my dad the record, he could tell right off the bat that it was audiophile grade because of how heavy it was. So now I know that 180 gram vinyl is today’s way of saying audiophile. And you can tell when listening to it that it sounds SO MUCH BETTER! The amount of bass is inconceivable and everything about the sound couldn’t be any more clean and crisp.

Here’s another thing about Sunn O))) that you might find surprising. Sunn O)) is HUGE. They play in huge venues and have played sold-out shows around the world. Why the hell is there so many people racing to get tickets to their shows? Obviously you can tell just by looking at the almost immediate success of this band that there was an underlying hunger for this kind of music already stirring amongst metalheads. Their concerts are described as having loads of stage smoke and the music being played at EXTREMELY high volumes. I WILL BE THE FIRST PERSON TO BUY A TICKET TO THEIR NEXT SEATTLE SHOW!!

The album consists of four songs that drag on for more than 15 minutes; which is the reason why this is a double LP with one song on each side. The album artwork on the re-release is astonishing and much more attractive and professional than the original artwork. I could go on and on in detail about my experiences listening to this band, but this is a review that is supposed to motivate YOU to find out what kind of experience this band will present to you. Like I said before, the experience is different for everyone, and this isn’t a time where you pay attention to the music part, it’s for opening yourself to the monotonous droning of guitars and letting it enclose you.

Even though the monotonous droning of guitar feedback and low bass tones can get old after a while, this is a listening experience that no one should be able to say they’ve never gone through. My love for this album is immense and I hope to see them in concert very soon because I will not be able to wait very much longer. I would HIGHLY recommend this to EVERYONE; but I’m not going to guarantee you’ll like it at all. I would give this album a perfect score and would like to see you leave a comment saying you own a physical copy of this album. And keep in mind that it’s available on CD too; I got the LP because it’s a “cream” colored version and it was relatively inexpensive.