What the hell? Sorry, these songs are pretty damn good and I could be all over this, but the fucking recording is terrible. I'm stunned and disappointed. Most everything on Trustkill sounds fucking amazing, but this shit sounds so fucking fucked up and weak I can't believe it. First things first, the guitar tone blows. It's all compressed and messed up sounding... it's got a weird clunk to it, it sounds distant, and there's no real force there at all. Aside from that, the bass often gets lost, and the drums are overly rigid (and also distant). The vocals are the only element that sounds right at all. The screams are doubled and pretty hoarse, but they have the right amount of tonality involved, so they feel balanced and full (the singing is slightly plainer but still pretty nice as far as the production is concerned). I could live with the drum sound and the lack of tangible bass guitar under normal circumstances, but god damn, the guitar tone is inexcusable. I'm blown away, how could anyone let this slide? It's a crying fucking shame too, because these songs perfectly blend a little midpaced melodic Swedish death metal with chunky chugga chugga breakdowns and overt melodies with slick singing vocals contrasting the aggressive styles. It's sort of standard modern metalcore, or at least what's becoming the standard, but the songwriting is really good, so I'm actually enraged that I can barely sit through the recording. I fucking hate it when that happens. The lead melodies sound a lot smoother, but the chord progressions and 90% of the rhythm guitars sound awful. I mean, I'm not exaggerating here. Sure, it could be worse, but this is not the level of quality I would expect for a band on this label at all. Not at this point. Maybe six years ago, but not now. And even six years ago it would've been hard to tolerate because it's so damn unbalanced, you know? I do like the songs, though. Yeah, there's a little Pantera type stuff, a little dissonance... but for the most part it's pretty straightforward and catchy, so they've got some good shit happening. My ears slowly start to adjust about halfway through the disc to where I can sit and listen to it, there's no denying a song like "Marigold" is good shit, but I'm so bummed that these kids didn't score a better recording session for this stuff. There are only a few weak tracks here that could be cut out to lessen the running time (especially "Freak Gasoline Fight Accident"), but other than that it'd be a solid listen with a suitable guitar tone. The layout looks pretty nice. I'm not wild on all the band photos because they're too posed and forced and sort of waste space, but aside from that all of the photography is great, the color scheme is totally consistent, and I really like the tiny and compact text arrangements a lot. Lyrics? Ehhh... I'm not into 'em. Love gone wrong, hardships, lots of overdramatic metaphors and stuff like that. It's sort of overkill, I wouldn't call them whiny or anything, but... you know, it's a little forced. Man, what a damn shame. A damn, damn fucking shame. Their next record ought to kill if they keep at it. There's no way it won't have a better sound to it, and the writing should only progress with time. I'll be looking forward to that one, I have to say. I have big expectations for this band, that's for sure.
[Trustkill]
Running time - 41:25, Tracks: 11
[Notable tracks: Severed Ties Yield Severed Heads, Marigold, Our Disintegration]
Trustkill Records - http://www.trustkill.com
