By John Bedard
There is a lot here that I should like but unfortunately, I am very bored. While the album does play nicely in the background while working or doing other things, there is not much here to really demand your attention or keep me all that interested. It is a rather simple album – which is not necessarily a bad thing- but I often found myself wanting it to go somewhere, and it never really did. Actually, it felt quite repetitive, with little evolution. It is a shame really, because there is a lot of potential here…
For the most part, the album takes on a rather retro feeling. I get a late ’80s/early ’90s Nirvana kind of vibe from the lead vocal style which I would say is a good thing and at times this was combined with a death metal style scream that was a cool contrast. Normally this is the kind of thing I would point to as a major positive but I feel like the contrast was never used to its potential. If you are going to do something like that then capitalize on the natural climaxes and drops of the music for when the transitions feel right. I feel this was missed often. It is like when the drop is offbeat in EDM it just throws off the rhythm of the crowd and they have to find the grove again. I got that same kind of feeling here.
Musically, things improve a bit. Overall, the musical style stays pretty mellow in a nice kind of way. The guitars stay mostly clean compared to other similar bands turning to more of an overdrive with that tube crunch style rather than a more modern distortion. Once again keeping with that retro feeling. Really I have little to complain about the instrumentation other than to say it has to match the vocals. If you are going to have these big screams in the vocals then the music needs to build with it or if the music is not going to build then the vocals should stay on the level. Most of the time it felt like the music and vocals were disconnected.
I know I have been pretty negative above but I don’t want that to be the whole story. The album was pretty enjoyable when in the background while working. It was when I started listening to it for content to pick it apart for a review was when I started to have more issues. It is just a little boring and does not quite fit together. I think it would fit in well in a playlist, but it is not one I’m going to be running out and making all my friends listen to.
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