Nah. No thanks. This Australian act plays traditional metal with a modern vibe and I'm not into it. The singing is pretty good, it's raspy singing with an old school metal feel, but it also has a rock sort of thing going on and that bugs me. The music has that kind of a thing happening as well. It's like taking old school thrash and mixing it with modern hard rock and a little bit of a metallic hardcore thing with the breakdowns... but it all sort of comes off sounding like a tolerable radio metal band with a vocalist that has more of traditional approach. It's not the worst thing I've ever heard, but it's boring... and I can't help but imagine this band playing in half-empty bars to like five or 10 people. It's not really melodic or super groovy like nu-metal, though... it's a really weird blend of metal styles they've got happening. The recording is okay. I like the guitar tone and everything else sounds decent, I'd just rework the mix. The bass needs more of a presence to add density to the core and keep the rigid drums intact, and the vocals need to fall back in with the music a bit more. I'm not that into the presentation. It could be worse, parts of it are okay, but I'm not liking the way the logo is all choppy and pixilated (as is some of the imagery), and the text and everything just kind of feels like a rush job, it looks like it was put together in a hurry. The band name totally rubs me the wrong way and has a goofy ring to it, but the lyrics, while not great, aren't so bad - dealing with personal turmoil and persevering through the bullshit of day to day life. This just isn't my thing. I don't know, if they were playing straight old school metal I think they could pull it off. The vocalist would definitely be much more suited in a power metal type of band, but there's just no substance here. It's cheesy and none of the riffs are memorable at all. They're competent, but they don't have that much to offer.
[self-released]
Running time - 20:56, Tracks: 6
[Notable tracks: none of them really stand out]
Skintilla - http://www.skintilla.com
