Not unlike their last record, but perhaps leaning a bit more towards both ends of the spectrum as far as melody and heaviness, "Self-Destructive Pattern" sees Spineshank mixing groovy metal with electronic textures and indeed basically coming off as tolerable nu-metal. I'm not sure if I like this quite as much as the last disc as a whole, but these songs do tend to have more memorable choruses, and I can appreciate that. "Beginning of the End" is a single if I've ever heard one, far more melodic and a million times catchier than anything else on the disc, but I'll be damned if it's not a great fucking song. I love it, what can I say? "Tear Me Down" is another consistently catchy track, a bit darker than some of the other material as far as bringing in some layers of clean guitars and feedback and such, but it's the vocal harmonies that make it stick, as always. The recording is okay but it does hold them back in some respects. The drums are way too rigid, which is unnecessary because the electronic textures add in that sort of element, so the drums don't need to sound so machinated at all. The guitar tone is also a weird mix between an overproduced nu-metal sound and a biting sort of industrial tone, so it has a lot of texture, but it's not smooth enough to really flow with the tracks. The vocals sound great, though. I'd just mix the bass louder and then clean up the aforementioned elements. There are also some CD-Rom videos for "Smothered" (which is pretty standard band performance footage on some sort of set or whatever, but there are some cool color and video effects that make it look a little more interesting) and what's dubbed as a "behind the scenes featurette", but it's really just audio clips from the CD with footage from the recording process in the studio for like three minutes or so... pretty lame. The layout looks good to me. Most of the lyrics are handwritten, the imagery has a nice dull color and texture to it, the arrangement is nice. No complaints there. The content of the songs is pretty typical and honestly immature, but I wouldn't expect but so much from this particular type of band. "You pushed me too far, And I'm tired now, It all falls apart, Now I'm finally down, I hate the way you turn this all around, So you can bleach your shame, Apology is not an option now, It won't erase the blame..." This band could be fucking great if they refined their writing a little bit. Their style is fairly consistent, but the quality of their songs isn't. A good chunk of this material is boring, an equal chunk is pretty good, and then the scattered remnants are actually really damn slick. I can definitely listen to this, but it's not something I would spin on a regular basis by any means.
[Roadrunner]
Running time - 40:28, Tracks: 12
[Notable tracks: Smothered, Beginning of the End, Tear Me Down]
Roadrunner Records - http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com
