STATIC-X - BENEATH…BETWEEN…BEYOND (
Industrial Nu-Metal)
Static-X are one of the most original bands coming out of the nu-metal era. They came off like a
White Zombie/
Fear Factory hybrid with a nu-metal foundation; a striking contrast to the more standard nu-metal bands. Furthering that contrast was the powerful vocals—and ridiculously high hairdo—of vocalist Wayne Static. Originally simply called
Static, they released two self-titled demos that lead them to a record deal. With a new name, their major label debut,
Wisconsin Death Trip, was released in 1999 and quickly garnered them a large fan base. They’ve maintained that fan base, despite the decline of nu-metal’s popularity, over the course of three albums, and this,
Beneath…Between…Beyond, a collection of unreleased tracks, covers, remixes, and rare demos.
Like with most albums of this nature, it’s a mixed bag. The album is split up in sections, which makes it a smoother listen. The first eight tracks are the meat and potatoes of this album; featuring unreleased studio tracks that span the bands career it gets the album off to a great start. Two remixes follow; both are forgettable, if not simply pointless. The cover tracks come next in the shape of the old
Ministry classic
“Burning Inside,” this one featuring Burton C. Bell from
Fear Factory. Then there’s a cover of
Black Sabbath’s
“Behind The Wall Of Sleep” (originally featured on the
Nativity In Black II tribute album) and the oft-covered
“Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment” by
The Ramones. The album is rounded out with five demo tracks.
This album is worth it simply for the eleven unreleased studio tracks and the covers. The two remixes will do nothing for you, and the demos are cool, but offer little in replay value because the studio versions are far superior.
Beneath…Between…Beyond (great title for this type of album) is a solid odds-n-ends collection, but not without a few unnecessary dingleberries.
Rating:
60/100
Website:
http://www.static-x.com
MySpace:
http://www.myspace.com/staticx
Downloads:
Dirthouse (Video from
Start A War),
I’m The One (Video from
Start A War),
Push It (Video from
Wisconsin Death Trip), and
Bled For Days (Video from
Wisconsin Death Trip)
EMM GRYNER – THE SUMMER OF HIGH HOPE (
Acoustic/Piano Pop)
Last September Emm Gryner released a homemade album called
The Great Lakes. It was “written, recorded, mixed, printed, hand-stamped, stapled, embossed, cut, burned, packaged, and signed” by Emm. Almost a year to the day she has released her latest album,
The Summer Of High Hopes (although it was released in Ireland—of all places—in May).
Again this album is a mixture of piano- and acoustic-based tracks that range from upbeat, almost pop songs (
“Girls Are Murder” and
“Black-Eyed Blue Sky”) to melancholic tracks with piano and orchestration (
“Blackwinged Bird” and
“Star/Crossed”), and some with a mixture of both (
“See The Sea” and
“All-Time Low”).
The Summer Of High Hopes is a diverse album from a very dynamic and talented songwriter. She’s sung back-up on albums by
Rob Zombie and David Bowie; she’s covered
Def Leppard (
“Pour Some Sugar On Me”),
Ozzy (
“Crazy Train”),
Therapy? (
“Nowhere”) and
Fugazi (
“Waiting Room”). And more importantly that diversity translates to her music; and she writes some great music. But due to her limited reach from Canada, Gryner is easily one of the most underrated female artists out there today.
The Summer Of High Hopes is another great addition to her already excellent discography.
Rating:
85/100
Website:
http://emmgryner.com
MySpace:
http://www.myspace.com/emmgryner (featuring songs from this new album)
Downloads:
Case Of Tornadoes (Live video, awesome song from
The Great Lakes) and
Beat It (Live video, Michael Jackson cover)
PAPA ROACH – THE PARAMOUR SESSIONS (
Modern Alternative Rock)
Papa Roach has evolved since their early days. Their first few albums are harsher, heavier and noisier, but on songs like
“Orange Drive Palms” you got a glimpse of what was to come: full-blown rap-rock. They fully embraced the mix of rap and rock on their
5 Tracks Deep EP, a style later perfected on
Infest. At the height of the rapcore movement—and in a move that went against mainstream logic—they abandoned virtually all of the rap aspects on the follow-up,
lovehatetragedy, and went straight for a more modern rock sound. The result was excellent!
Getting Away With Murder further solidified this band as a great rock band even if their departure from the style of
Infest steered them from the mainstream spotlight somewhat.
Far-out-of-the-spotlight bassist Tobin Esperance, surprisingly, has always been the main songwriter in
Papa Roach, and on
The Paramour Sessions he has followed the same path of modern alternative rock found on the last two albums, but this time he’s added some new elements.
“Forever” has, for possibly the first time, Jacoby Shaddix (who now looks like the mutant son of Nikki Sixx and Billie Joe Armstrong) truly singing, almost crooning, in a clean Jim Morrison-like vocal tone. He actually has a very good singing voice (he’s used it sparingly in the past, but not so strongly).
“Reckless” is an acoustic rocker, while
“The Fire” is like a 70’s rock track with a little Latin flavor.
“Roses On My Grave” has Shaddix singing again and rockin’ out over an all-orchestral backdrop! A great song, indeed. Songs like the catchy-as-hell
“I Devise My Own Demise,” “Alive (‘N Out Of Control),” the electronic-tinged
“Crash,” and the lead-off single,
“…To Be Loved” (featuring the album’s only rapped verse during the breakdown), will immediately please fans of the band’s previous two albums.
Rating:
90/100
Website:
http://www.paparoach.com
MySpace:
http://www.myspace.com/paparoach (three clips, one full song from this new album)
Downloads:
…To Be Loved (Video) and
Roses On My Grave (Stupid YouTube fan video, but you get the song)
PILLAR - ABOVE (
Christian Rapcore)
I first heard
Pillar via the used bin at a local record store. I bought their original indie
Fireproof album (their major label debut was also called
Fireproof). I was impressed. The band was nothing special by any means, but they did the rapcore thing well. I’ve since picked up all their subsequent albums and have enjoyed them all.
Above, however, was an album that always eluded me. I could never find it in the music shops, and I constantly got outbid on eBay. Because of this I thought it was going to be a great album.
Wrong!
This album is rather boring, vapid and trite. I’ve never understood how any band could write an entire album—every song—on the same exact subject. Christian bands do it all the time; always writing about Jesus. The problem is that some bands aren’t very poetic with their lyrics, and though
Pillar later figured out how to properly write lyrics, they failed here on their debut: “He heals the sick / He saves the lost and died for you in case you forgot, man / He’ll jump a building in a single bound / I once was lost, but now I’m found.” Words about as lifeless as the man they’re writing about. And, as you could probably tell from those lyrics, the flow is pretty bad on most of the songs. I have a feeling that this album came out very soon after this band began writing music. There are some good songs here, indications of things to come, but
Above is largely forgettable.
I’m not even remotely religious so I always find it funny when I rock out to Christian music! But when it’s good I can’t deny it—or is it
Him? Ha! Either way,
Above is far below average. Like I said,
Pillar later became a very good band, but God should have intervened and kept this album from being released.
Rating:
30/100
Website:
http://www.pillarmusic.com
MySpace:
http://www.myspace.com/pillar
Downloads:
Open Your Eyes (Video from
Above),
Bring Me Down (Video from
Fireproof) and
Frontline (Video from
Where Do We Go From Here)
SEEMLESS – WHAT HAVE WE BECOME (
Hardcore Stoner Rock)
I always find it odd when a band finally hits “the big time” and key band members quit. Back in 1998
Kilgore, formerly known as
Kilgore Smudge (and
Stain, and
Smudge before that), released
A Search For Reason; the album took off, landing the band a slot on Ozzfest, giving them a quickly multiplying fan base. Then, after seven years, as the band was on the rise, vocalist Jay Berndt abruptly quit the band.
Kilgore’s days were over.
Similarly, Jesse Leach of
Killswitch Engage followed a similar path. After the band hit it big with
Alive Or Just Breathing, he abruptly quit the band in 2002.
Killswitch Engage carried on, tapping Howard Jones of
Blood Has Been Shed to take up the (inferior) vocal slot. Jesse Leach resurfaced a few years later in
Seemless, a band featuring ex-members of
Shadows Fall,
Overcast, and another ex-
Killswitch Engage alum, singing on their self-titled debut album.
The band follows a similar path tread previously by
Only Living Witness, a cited influence. They combine hardcore and groovy rock riffs that often border on stoner rock. Vocally, Jesse Leach only touches on his previous metalcore style, opting here for a soaring, cleaner tone. The debut was already written when Leach joined the band;
What Have We Become is the band’s first collaborative effort with Leach. This album is heavier than the last, more raw, but still groovy as hell with a hardcore sensibility; evident on tracks like
“In My Blood,” “Cast No Shadow,” and
“Seven.” A good dose of melody accompanies
“Eyes Of A Child,” “Parody” and the album closer,
“…Things Fall Apart.”
What Have We Become is another great album that just falls short of the greatness showcased on the debut. However, there’s nary a reason to not check this one out.
Rating:
75/100
Website:
http://www.seemlessband.com
MySpace:
http://www.myspace.com/seemless
Downloads:
Cast No Shadow (from
What Have We Become),
Numb (from
What Have We Become),
Cast No Shadow (Video from
What Have We Become) and
Lay My Burden Down (Video from the self-titled debut)
SOULBENDER - SOULBENDER (
Modern Rock)
Soulbender is a side-project of
Queensryche’s Michael Wilton. In 2003, speaking on the subject of
Queensryche’s upcoming
Tribe album, Wilton stated in an interview, “I believe this album should be hard and intense, [but] what I have heard so far is not that,” Wilton said. “I have no desire to change
Queensryche into an adult contemporary band. This should be a
Queensryche album and not a Geoff Tate solo album.”
Soulbender was, I think, Wilton’s way of releasing some of his heavier stuff that was cock-blocked by Geoff Tate, never making it onto a
Queensryche album.
This is
Soulbender’s self-titled debut full-length—after an industry-only EP release—that came out in 2004. This album is very much in the same vein of
Queensryche’s
Q2K and
Tribe, but, strangely enough, this album is heavier and much better. Vocalist Nick Pollock (ex-
My Sister’s Machine) is a better fit (read:
not a better vocalist) for this kind of music than Geoff Tate is. Tate’s strong vocals often seem to overshadow the current
Queensryche musical output, but Pollock fits right in with his darker, grittier rock style.
Very much a modern rock album, similar to
Alice In Chains,
Soulbender still has Michael Wilton pulling out some riffs and solos not seen since
Queensryche’s
Empire and earlier. Standouts include
“Fix Me,” “Rabbit Hole,” “The American Dream,” “Samsara,” and the epic
“Three Towers”—which could have been the best
Queensryche song since
Empire.
Rating:
85/100
Website:
http://www.soulbender.com
MySpace:
http://www.myspace.com/soulbender
Downloads:
Fix Me,
Rabbit Hole,
The American Dream,
Samsara and
Three Towers (low quality, 2-minute CD Baby streams)
See my signature for many more superific review threads (except Vol. 3, those are old and not-so-fresh).
