Diatribe "s/t" CD
[self-released]
This Australian band isn't quite as horrible as I thought they would be, but it's still weak nu-metal sort of stuff with lots of rhythmic grooves, harmonics, grunted vocal arrangements, etc. I mean, they do write half decent songs for this kind of stuff, I could see 15-year-old kids who like this kind of music bouncing up and down and going apeshit over it, but... I'm not 15, and I don't like this kind of stuff. On occasion they do play some faster riffs or sludgy sort of runs that are in the Pantera or later Sepultura vein (as are the solos, which may as well have been stolen from "Chaos A.D."), but it's all driven by basic groove. And the vocals just don't do it for me at all, I think they're the weakest link actually. "Enomic" is the closest they've got to a song that I almost like, as it's not so damn groovy and kind of has a Biohazard thing going on with some of the chord progressions and leads, but again, those vocals just ruin it... I don't know... I don't like the way the vocals layer and pan around from left to right, I don't like the ineffective rock twang to the shouting, etc. I don't mind the production. For a self-released EP it sounds good. The mix is cohesive, the tones are dense, etc. The vocals are flat and stand apart from the music, but other than that it's okay. Sure, they'd have to clean it up if they were gonna do a full-length, but this gets the job done fine. The layout's pretty crappy, using a lot of stupid Photoshop effects that obscure all the images beyond recognition, unprofessional band photos, etc. I refuse to discuss the lyrics because instead of writing "you" they just write "u", and that's what 10-year-old girls on Instant Messenger do, so... take a guess as to how worthwhile the content of these songs are. Oh, and two of the band members have that "hairstyle" where your scalp is divided into quadrants with one long braid coming out of each section. I'll pass. (2/10)
Running time - 18:41, Tracks: 5
[Notable tracks: none of 'em are any better than the others]
Diatribe - http://www.diatribe.com.au

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