Album Review!

The Bunny The Bear - If You Don't Have Anything Nice To Say...

Mixing brutal Buffalo hardcore music with dance/electronica, The Bunny The Bear loves to be hated \m/  Think what you want, I think they're fantastic.  Their debut album on Victory Records 'If You Don't Have Anything Nice To Say' starts off by jumping directly for the throat.  'Prelude To Pregnancy' sweeps in with some sweet synth, guitars, hi-hat filled drum tracks, and some incredible screaming work.  Yes, it's a generic synth break intro..but you can't help but love this one in particular.  Jumps from that into a previously released song 'Asile' which brings in The Bear's intoxicating voice work.  Big bad bear with the voice of a motherfucking angel.  'The Asile' is a very good example of what TBTB is all about.

If you're still with it after the first two tracks, stay aboard for a fun little musical ride.  'Ocean Floor' is one of their newer songs.  It's fantastic.  1:17 into the song and you'll witness a bit of dancecore...i made that up just now.  Nice use of reverb and electronic effects on the track.  It's prominent, but not overpowering.  It fits in perfect with the song and nothing feels out of place, this pretty much carries on throughout the entire album luckily.  Everything feels right.  It's experimental by nature, but that doesn't mean they just threw a bunch of things together and added pro-tools magic.  There's a lot of very cool things going on here.

'It's A Long Way From The Esophagus To The Ovaries' (oh rly?) has one VERY catchy chorus.  The melody is mesmerizing, and the percussion thuds to a very danceable beat.  I'm positive that throughout the rest of this band's career we will hear a lot of songs like this one.   'Lust Touch Seed' follows suit, this one's an older one of their's re-done for the debut album.  The synth riff that starts the song, carries on, and morphs throughout the song is simply perfect.  You will be hearing that in your head for days, not a bad thing by any means.

This is not a perfect album.  The songs need a little better structure and direction but that's simply constructive criticism, because i've heard this band grow from what they were years ago, to what they are now and i can tell you if you like this effort, their best is yet to come.  To judge for yourself, check out the rest of the songs on the album as well because i could go on for an hour on these guys

8/10

i love this album, and i don't have much bad to say about it.  It's an acquired taste, and the only reason i personally don't score it higher is because i feel like they're progressed so much over the years, that they can do even better than this.  This is a band that i predict will explode over the next year or two

Coming Soon...

2012

what to expect from this page in the coming year

New album reviews

'classic' album reviews (reviewing various albums from my vast collection of random tunes)

More show reviews

Big show review coming up in march.  

Full Analysis of the 

Dying Fetus/The Faceless/ Job For A Cowboy/Volumes/Last Chance To Reason show

at Club Infinity March 3rd

rating the performance of each individual band as well as the show as a whole

and who knows, maybe some random stupid videos from the chaos which shall ensue at the after party \m/  

bookmark this page, send it to your friends, or trash me on your own blog i don't give a fuck.  :)

Album Review

Lamb of God - Resolution 

Lamb of God has always been one of my favorite metal bands for obvious reasons.  The guitars, drums, and vocal work are top notch on every level, and this album takes it to a new one.  This is the best LoG album hands down.  Not only is it the best Lamb of God album ever but it is easily in the running for the Most Badass Album of the Year.  if there was such an award anyway

Instead of going into ridiculous detail using terms only half of you will understand about why this stands out above some of the other recent releases lately, listen for yourself.  

Overall, the tone of the instruments, the structure of the songs, and the style mostly resemble Wrath over any other album but in reality..this album is truly a beast all it's own.  

do yourself a huge favor and go BUY this album, i'm going to that's for sure

9/10  \m/

Album Review

Attack Attack! (US) - This Means War

After losing their vocalist/founder of the band after their debut album, following it up with their now ex-synth player on screams immediately took a heavier direction due to the nature of his voice and the lack of creative input from Austin, their old screamer.  After their second album release they then lost their lead guitar player who was responsible for most of their signature half-auto tuned high pitched clean vocals.  Their third full length release 'This Means War' heads further away from the original vision for Attack Attack!  but in a good way.  

This album treads very very close to the border with their friendly neighbor 'Deathcore'

The move to 7 string guitars is immediately present  from track one and sticks through the whole cd.  This album is like a breakdown minefield interbreeding with melodic chorus's sung by Caleb himself.  This dude's been taking some singing lessons!  who needs their old guitar player..?  clearly not these guys.  

So the vocals have improved a ton.  They have put a lot more thought into the production of them in both the singing and screaming.  They ditched the autotune, only put in synth where it was appropriate, and made it dirty as all hell so it really stands out in a good way.  The biggest gripe i have with the new album is the instrumentals..and that is what kills it for me.  The instrumental tracks alone have no traction against anything else in the genre they're so closely dancing with.  They are extremely boring.  They need to learn how to play those shiny new 7 strings before they even DARE call themselves deathcore, which more than likely will end up happening at this rate.  

Final word?  personally..i'm probably not going to purchase it.  The instrumentals kill what would otherwise be their best album to date.  They blend most songs together and doesn't hold your interest much.  

forces me to give this album a 

6/10

better luck next time boys

In Flames - A Sense of Purpose

Currently listening through the second most recent In Flames album called 'A Sense of Purpose' through some pretty good bose speakers. bought this at Best Buy a couple weeks ago for about ten bucks.  worth it?  not sure yet

Like The Deftones?

TesseracT

Here's a good alternative.  Are they better than The Deftones?  no, i don't see it that way.

This band has elements of The Deftones in the overall structure and vocal style

but has harder guitars, 'Djent' style guitars more along the lines of Periphery (actually their vocalist reminds me a bit of Spencer from Periphery as well)

when shown to my friends and fellow musicians i have gotten mixed response.  

a good buddy of mine said something along the lines of "It sounds like they are trying too hard"  not really sure what that means..but that's one angle.  

But if you like The Deftones or that Djent style of guitar work, for sure give these guys a listen.

They're heavy almost without trying to be.  They're heavy in a different sense.  You won't find any 'breakdowns' here.  But they aren't needed.