Nevea Tears "Do I Have to Tell You Why I Love You" CD
[Eulogy]
Hmmm... I kind of liked this until the synths and shit came in. It's basically screamo type stuff that leans more towards metalcore, blending acerbic screaming with surprisingly effective singing over a musical backdrop that has a lot of rhythmic chunkiness and melodic sensibilities. But the hipster keyboards are fucking stupid and make no sense at all in this context. What are weird, spacey sort of electronic elements supposed to add to fairly typical melodic metalcore tracks about love gone sour? If the lyrics were all sci-fi or something it might make sense, but it would still be irritating. What's more annoying is that they're mixed in right against the guitars, so they often cloud up the mix and make it harder to get a real feel for what the guitars are doing. And the dance-ish beat/programming break in "Helium Queen"? No fucking way. I mean, shit, the fucking keyboard patches being used don't fit this music at all, it just doesn't fucking sound right. "Today Cake, Tomorrow Spraying for Roaches" is shorter and far more caustic than most of the tracks, so somehow the synths don't make such a mess, and the piano sounds do work in "Heavy Breathing", but... that's two songs out of 10, you know? Or three, since somehow they managed to pull off a killer closer with "In Sickness and in Health" (especially shocking since it runs almost eight minutes) - if the whole record was like that they'd be good to go. I think the production is suitable. The mix needs work because the rigidity of the drums can cut through sometimes, and the vocals definitely hover out above the music, but for the most part the tones and everything are fine. If the band insists on keeping the synth element in place then they at least need to seriously reevaluate where that shit's gonna rest in the mix, because this war between guitars and synths isn't flyin' with me. The guitars need to dominate, no doubt. Take note, because every time the damn keyboards drop out everything immediately sounds clearer and stronger as a result. The layout looks pretty cool with lots of bright colors and crisp text, so it's consistent and all that. I'm not really into the lyrics because as is fairly common these days they're just dealing with relationships and stuff and get a little sappy and weepy without really putting much of a creative spin on things. I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt because sans electronic junk this would be a good record. I think they should dump all that crap immediately because it seems trendy for the sake of it and actually harms their music, but they could maybe get it all worked out if they put the effort into it. We'll see. (6/10)
Running time - 41:45, Tracks: 10
[Notable tracks: Heavy Breathing, In Sickness and in Health]
Eulogy Recordings - http://www.eulogyrecordings.com

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