All Parallels "You Won't Feel a Thing" CD
[self-released]
Horrible lyrics and quite unfortunately muddy recording aside, this is some potentially promising emo/indie rock that has a lot of great vocal harmonies and some really creative riffing that's not overly simple but is definitely a bit more interesting and involved than most of what's out there right now. There are a lot of interesting chord formations and some unusually curious riffs that border on having a math rock sort of feel, the drumming is really fucking nice, etc. "Hex" is a fucking awesome song. This shit totally has all of the force and catchiness that a lot of these types of bands had in the 90's and completely lack now. If the entire EP sounded like this I would be totally all over this action. It's sort of heavy (for emo), but the riffs are really catchy and creative, sort of like older Farside or something like that. But sadly "Nymphomaniac" is an inexcusably horrible song across the board, and it pretty much takes away about 50% of this EP's impact. Not only because the subject matter is stupid, but because the lyrics are stupider, the vocal performance is obnoxious as shit, and the music itself is garbage. The recording? Well, it's not bad, but something's screwy. There's just a thickness in there that makes no sense. It's not the bass, it's not the drums... maybe it's the guitars and the vocals? There's just this invisible muddy presence making things a little messy, so the clarity is there but it feels suppressed somehow. It's a shame, but it doesn't prevent the band's potential from showing through. The layout's okay. It looks pretty crisp and whatnot. The imagery is abstract and the inner spread with the lyrics is straight white text over a black background, but it works. I hate the lyrics, though. I knew as soon as I saw a song called "Nymphomaniac" that I was going to hate the subject matter, and sure enough that song is the worst of the bunch, sinking to an inexcusably ridiculous level. "On the kitchen floor, up against the door, It's hard for me to talk about, She can see I'm sore but she still wants more, You don't wanna know about, Quarter after four and she likes it raw..." Get the fuck out of here with that goofy bullshit. No more songs like "Nymphomaniac", no more song titles lyrics like "Load a Gun and Kill Me", none of that crap. This band could be absolutely incredible if they took their strengths to the next level. If this was a 7" with just "Marrow" and "Hex" I'd be very excited, but "Load a Gun and Kill Me" and "Nymphomaniac" really hurt. (5/10)
Running time - 16:51, Tracks: 5
[Notable tracks: Marrow, Hex]
All Parallels - http://www.allparallels.com

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