2006-05-16
The first notable thing about this album is probably its cover, one that could easily mistake the audience into thinking this is yet another Latino-pop-star. Once the album is opened the viewer might be disappointed by the singer’s voice and the fact the singer isn’t the hot girl in the cover.
A weak opener, “Drowning in Myself”, and a not so necessary interlude aren’t exactly the best way to open an album in this genre of Alternative/nu metal.
The album picks up in “Vermilion” (were not only the title is close to Slipknot but some of the guitar riffs are reminiscent as well) and continues the same strong line in the groovier “Blow me away” and the hard-rocking possible-hit-material title track.
The coming of the “Interlude two” could make one wonder why there are so many interludes and if they’re just there as fillers between the actual songs. “Interlude two” is a silent melancholic track, which had the potential of becoming a good full-length song by itself, and “Another Lulla-bye”, its follower, is a song to blast your stereo with.
The choice to separate “Interlude three”, which is more or less a bass line, from “Get down” is yet another peculiar choice… the badass riffs and bass line make “Get down” a highlight so it doesn’t seem to make much sense to separate the two.
This album also has a couple of non-fitting post-grunge like songs, “Die young” and “Save yourself” – this is something I find difficult to understand, duo to the vocalist issue.
Towards the end the band seems to try harder; “Firesign” starts with swelling bass/drum/guitars which make it one of the stronger songs here, even the vocalist tries harder here and he does show improvement.
“Generation sick” is a song to move to, influenced like its predecessor from industrial rock/metal but suffers from a weak chorus.
Overall, the vocalist is this group’s main problem; his voice may be strong and melodic, but it is just not what the genre requires, he lacks the ruggedness – this is very evident in “Die young”, “Drowning in myself”, “Wasting away”, “Save yourself” and “Shake it” – he simply doesn’t deliver. It pretty much feels like he’s a heavy metal washout.
To be frank, I see little reason to dig into this album but I do see a reason to keep track on this band; the music they make is solid, they just need a change of vocals.
Ofer Vayner
