Killwhitneydead. "Never Good Enough for You" CD
[Tribunal]
Well, this thing will probably sell like hotcakes if for no other reason than the entire layout is based around artsy photographs of a nude, rather pierced female model covered in blood and holding what is to be her own heart in her hands. A generic concept, for sure, but I'll give them credit for pulling it off a tad bit better than most somehow or another. That being said, this is better than the band's last release. It still needs work, mainly on the recording, but it's alright. I'd call it spastic, grinding death metalcore with scarce hints of black metal, sludge, and melodic Swedish runs here and there. Expect lots of tremolo picking, plenty of chugging breakdowns, some discordant and chaotic riffing, throaty vocal screams (which are actually really cool), and a bunch of samples interspersed all over the place. Now, I think the samples are fucking annoying as hell, and they really disrupt the flow of the disc big time. The songs are short bursts, and I like that, but it's a pain in the ass when the music stops or breaks up to allow space for a sample every 30 seconds or so. It really interrupts the overall energy. They really ought to drop that shit, because they could be pretty ferocious otherwise. "Duct Tape & Death Threats" and "You Will Get Exactly What You Deserve (And Not One Bullet Less)" have a little bit of a thrash thing going on, "Like You Didn't Hear Me The First Time" jumps from killer midpaced rhythms to blazing tremolo picking, "Forgiveness isn't as Much Fun as Holding a Grudge" is more rhythmic and almost reminds me of Pantera at times, etc. "She Didn't Look Like She Had a Disease" breaks out some rocked out singing vocals and classic metal riffs - definitely using a sense of humor, but somehow working itself out to be one of the best tracks herein. "You Like Knife Play? I Love Knife Play" has a quick clean break with some spoken vocals and mixes samples in a bit more effectively without physically making space for them within the song, so even though I don't particularly care for the song, it is a bit more interesting and well put together than some of the others. I'm also not a fan of the solos, though. I like solos, I do, but... there's really no need for a whirlwind of notes and shit, sort of like Slayer, when the songs are less than two minutes long. They're just annoying. Now, the production... I don't know. The vocals sound pretty good, and though a little lacking in crunch I can live with the guitar tone. But the bass is pretty hard to make out, and the drums are too tight, they have no real density at all, so everything kind of dwells in this midrange mass without a lot of thickness. It needs a better sense of definition and massiveness overall. The lyrics are brief and honestly give me a bit of a headache trying to read, as the text is small and the handwritten type is rough on the eyes. Under the tray is a credit list of the million samples used on the disc - and how the fuck they cleared all those is beyond me. This is okay. It would be better without all of the samples, and they could stand to focus their writing a bit more so that it's consistently strong rather than on again/off again, but it's undoubtedly better than their last record. They've still got more potential than they're taking advantage of, but... they're doin' their thing. (6/10)
Running time - 30:43, Tracks: 17
[Notable tracks: Duct Tape & Death Threats, You Will Get Exactly What You Deserve (And Not One Bullet Less), She Didn't Look Like She Had a Disease, Revenge (My Part Time Lover)]
Tribunal Records - http://www.tribunalrecords.com

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