Ahhh, the conundrum of bands that are musically very capable and yet inexcusably wasteful in their silly demeanor. Why, oh why would a band that can write good songs waste their time with song titles like "I Beat God at Tae Kwon Do" and lyrics such as, "Girls are cute, they rarely poot, and they have wet vaginas..." I'm fucking speechless there. The layout sucks, too. Hands down. Sorry. It's a professional attempt, but it still looks lame. The artwork subject matter is dumb, the colors are tacky, the fonts are tacky... not my style at all. Clearly it's all about humor, but that ain't working for me either. Other than that, and a recording that doesn't do their music justice, I think these guys write good songs. It's pretty unique in a way, using a lot of modern metalcore devices as far as lots of changes and discordance with a mix of melodic and quirky Faith No More/Mr. Bungle type stuff with vocals that shift from manic screams to awesome singing or spoken passages without a hitch. So there are some technical and almost proggy/math metal sorts of riffs, a lot of chugging start/stop rhythms, good melodies, a few full blown funky basslines (the bassist is fucking incredible), and then some. And the songs flow as well, it's not a jarring batch of riffs slapped together, and they never abandon a clear path of writing tactics either, it's not too noisy or chaotic at all. Admittedly there are little bits of "nu-metal" type stuff in here (more in a Glassjaw sort of "nu-metal" way than anything, nothing too far gone), but it doesn't bother me at all. "Last Call for Rufenol" is all catchy and has a weird metally Weezer thing going on or something, which I don't like under these conditions at all, but most of the other songs don't stray that far from the general path. The recording? Well... it's rough around the edges, not to mention insanely inconsistent both as far as levels and tones are concerned. The songs deserve better. The bass tone is fucking great and the vocals tend to sound pretty smooth, but the drums can be too rigid and clicky at times, and the guitars just have a sheen over the distortion that keeps things from being thick and smooth. It's a noisy sort of mix, they just need an all around clearer and more consistently warm/natural sound. The general aesthetic of the release is just crap compared to what the band could be capable of, but... I'll just hope that they nail a good recording and keep the goofiness in line with their next release. I hate hearing talent go to waste like this.
[Clockrock]
Running time - 40:36, Tracks: 10
[Notable tracks: Shadowboxing (To Stay Fit), My Biggest Fan, Feast of Breath and Teeth]
Look What I Did - http://www.ihatelookwhatidid.com
