Kicked in the Head "Salita" CD
[Resurrection A.D.]
Here's some more rocked out hardcore with some upbeat pop punk types of influences and a lot of other shit going on from these guys. I think this is slightly better than their last release, mainly thanks to the dismissal of the ska influences. The songs are just solid, rockin' tunes. It's not that special, but there's a lot of potential. More so than before. "Arizona" is definitely an awesome song, the writing is far more energetic and catchy, the basslines are really prominent and stand apart from the guitars, and the mixture of singing and shouting vocals is really effective (I like the vocal harmonies a lot). Plus the riffing is a bit more diverse and interesting as a whole, what with some nice clean breaks and great drumming, etc. Good stuff. The recording is okay. It needs some tweaking, though. The guitars need more crunch or something, they're too dry and sort of distant and thin. Actually, the mix is sort of lacking impact, really. The vocals sound pretty good, but along with the drums they tend to stick out a bit, I wish things were more even and a little bit brighter. More bass, thicker guitars with a good balance of tones in the distortion, etc. That would really help. I like the artwork on this thing. The colors are all bright and fiery reds, yellows and oranges, contrasted with some heavy black and a little bit of white. Plus the fonts tend to be consistent as well. Everything looks pretty bold. The lyrics don't really catch my attention so much but I do like the way some of the passages flow: "To be crowned king of a kingdom of cowards could be a nightmare that drains you for hours to run through life with a social disease gone sour could make you feel like you're ruling a world with no power over yourself..." That's a definite improvement over some of their previous lyrics. There's also a CD-Rom portion to the disc with two videos, one from this EP, one from their last record, but I couldn't get the videos to play for some reason. I don't know what the deal is there. Not bad. It still needs work, but not bad... (6/10)
Running time - 17:16, Tracks: 5
[Notable tracks: All the Way, Arizona]
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