Calico System "The Duplicated Memory" CD
[Eulogy]
Damn. I sort of thought this would be good, but no dice. Well, I take that back... because this could be good, but there are some major problems that kill it. First: The production. The sound here is not at all up to speed with the level of quality that I would expect not only from the label, but from a band that plays a style of music (melodic metalcore with emo tinges) that really needs a nice, dense, clean sound. The mix is really messy, the levels aren't even, and the tones are really raw and incredibly separated from one another. Pretty much everything about this needs to be reworked except for the bass tone and portions of the drums. Problem two? The singing vocals. They're not bad, but something about them is really off. They stick out like a sore thumb and just don't feel like they fit. They should fit, hell, the guy should probably sing all the time instead of wasting his time screaming and shit, but something's not right. The recording could very well have something to do with that, but it's too hard for me to gauge that one. And then we come to strike three: The songwriting. Now, this stuff is generic. I can handle that. I don't mind that in this case because, truth be told, these kids can write some good riffs, and actually do have some pretty good songs going on here. However, they're also a bit wrapped up in trying to cram way too many changes into a three-minute timeframe, so there's a big problem with fluidity, and a lot of the shifts in dynamics just don't make sense. They need to work on preventing things from sounding pasted together like that. The layout's not bad. Everything looks very consistent, I like the green-ish/brown colors and the textures, as well as the way imagery and text are manipulated, etc. Not bad at all. As far as the lyrics go, everything is personal and relatively concise, dealing out fairly commonplace lines and ideas that don't really get my attention per se. "Love will kill all, All my caring dies in vain, Try and replace me, still see the face of me, Hold my hand when you're in pain, I try to make you, see my love in front of you, Your changing, rips my life away..." Nope, this one's not working for me. I know they're on an independent label, but I'll still say that with a bigger budget I think this band could be on a better path. They'd still need to refine their writing a bit, but the recording is the key problem at the moment. It's a shame this wasn't an EP, because I hate to see a whole full-length go to waste. But whatever, more forgiving ears might be able to get into this. I'd like it more if the recording wasn't so damn weird. (4/10)
Running time - 32:19, Tracks: 10
[Notable tracks: most of them have their moments, but none of them truly grab me]
Eulogy Records - http://www.eulogyrecordings.com

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