Within The Ruins -- 'Creature' [review]

Within the Ruins - Creature
Victory Records (2/17/09)
Metal / Hardcore

Treading a razor-wire between metal, hardcore and death metal, Within the Ruins melds together a schizophrenic offering of tech-infused metal that relies on some elements from any genre within its reach. The result, while nothing terribly imaginative, manages to capture your attention.

The band has these moments, like on the galloping “Dig a Ditch”, where you’d almost expect them to break out into full-on, melodic, European-metal mode (which may have been a welcome change of pace), but for some reason it prefers to keep fully grounded into a metal/hardcore rut, so to speak. It seems the best thing the group has going for them, in terms of creative approach, is the imaginative dual-guitar attack that manages to incorporate just enough noodling before becoming overbearing (kind of like the anti-Norma Jean). Still, while incorporating multiple elements into each song could prevent them from dragging, the opposite seems to happen on occasion. Take opener “The Book of Books” or “Extinguish Them” as examples—the songs feel some three times longer than their four-minute runtimes would have you believe.

Ultimately, what we have here is a divisive release. Fans of hardcore will draw comparisons to some of their favorites on the scene; the same for metal-heads. Creatures sounds like a bunch of things thrown into a blender and then spilled about—at times devoid of direction, which is a real shame.

But Within the Ruins knocks one right out of the park with the instrumental “Jump Ship”, chock-full of melody and acoustic bliss. It would seem that incorporating more of that sentiment into its sound—more variety in the vocals (and no, the hardcore sing-along chants don’t count, though they do sound fantastic on “Tractor Pull”), and more grinding, groovy riffs instead of the machine-gunner approach would lead to a much fuller experience.

In the end, it appears the most divisive part of this release is that there are so many elements on here to love, but for some reason you can’t quite bring yourself to do it on account of the finished product coming out so chaotic. Ironically, song after song garners nothing more than a shrug, with nothing completely standing out and grabbing your attention, but once the album is over you find yourself giving it another spin. Did you enjoy it without realizing it, or are you just searching for something to latch on to? And that’s the most puzzling aspect of this Creature.

The Sleeping -- 'What it Takes' [review]

The Sleeping - What It Takes
Victory Records (2/17/09)
Alternative rock / Post-Hardcore

On their third album, The Sleeping continues on a well-worn path of post-hardcore, alternative rock that exploded a million bands toward the end of the first half of this decade. While most might roll their eyes at this endeavor because, well, let’s face it, most of the scene’s audience has moved on, and only the die-hard fans of specific bands stuck around at the party, there's still something to enjoy on What It Takes.

What The Sleeping has going for them is a sort of maturity to their musical approach (think the early years of Thursday). Sure, the band is, for the most part, taking big liberties emulating Rise Against, but they temper that approach on this album with added elements of keyboards and Theremin (just take a listen to the up-tempo anthem, “Friday Night”), ultimately giving them a wide palette from which to pull ideas for tracks.

(hed) P.E. -- 'New World Orphans' [review]

(hed)P.E. - New World Orphans
Suburban Noize (1/13/09)
Rap-rock / Metal

(hed)P.E. is an interesting case of contradictions. On the one hand, it's good to see that the years the band spent on a major label—where it was very clear that their sound was being distorted and manipulated to appeal to a wider audience—didn’t seem to crush their spirit. On the other, perhaps some of those constraints did them a little good.

On this album, all the positives the band has to offer—the smooth flow of the vocals, the tight instrumentation, the smart song construction—keep getting weighed down by the negatives also brought to the table. Some of the songs rely a little too much on the band’s punk sensibilities and are just too short. (The "get in, kick ass, get out" attack could work, but we know that they can craft good three- to four-minute songs, and have a good sense of hooks, so why waste time on little bursts that ultimately destroy any flow the album starts to create?)

Another glaring issue is the lyrical choices made on some of the tracks. A song like "Stepping Stone" has a fantastic, hook-laden chorus, but the opening salvo ("I just want to tie you up and rape you") doesn’t even work in terms of the song’s message.

But the good on here is really good. The reggae flavor of "Ordo" and the deep groove of "War on the Middle Class" is great, while the metal attack of "Stay Ready" and "Renegade" is done in trademark (hed)P.E. style. And the slow-burn of "Flesh and Blood" is actually a nice use of punk melded to the band's rap-metal assault.

Then there's the bad, like the above-mentioned "Stepping Stone" and all its wasted potential. And the stereotypical "Family" starts off promisingly but then quickly devolves to a typical, "mine’s bigger than yours," bad rap song. The over-too-soon "Live or Die Free" never really takes off, and too many intros broken off as their own tracks clutter the latter half of the album. And, of course, let's not forget the expendable (but obligatory for a Suburban Noize release) pot-anthem, "Higher Ground", featuring the Kottonmouth Kings.

Sandwiched between the two parts are some interesting moments, like the schizophrenic "Planet X" (easily one of the band's most successfully far-reaching tracks), complete with mid-song surf-rock riffing; the low-key, melodic "Self Aware" which is a nice change of pace; and one of the best songs of this set, "Tow the Line", which borrows a very familiar melody to great effect.

Ultimately, it looks like there's a good album hiding in there, but there's too much fat to trim away, which is gradually becoming (hed)P.E.'s calling card. Twenty-four tracks? Really? Even the overriding message, about the "new world order" and calls for a change, is, in the end, muddied by segues and tangents about sex and drugs and being truly “gangsta.”

Dirty Little Rabbits -- 'Simon' [review]

Dirty Little Rabbits - Simon [EP]
The End Records (1/20/09)
Alternative rock

This album is a real trip...

On first spin, Simon has this almost psychedelic, classic-rock air about it. But with each new listen—and let’s face it, at six tracks clocking in at just over 20 minutes, you’re sure to listen to this one a lot—the listener is, pardon the pun, pulled further and further down the rabbit hole.

It seems Dirty Little Rabbits has crafted quite the little musical voyage. The band, as a whole, produces an eerie, foreboding backdrop that makes the listener feel like they just wandered under the big top at an evil circus. And the ringmaster—in this case, singer Stella Katsoudas—acts as emcee, seething with drama and emotion. And her far-from-nuanced approach creates this situation where her vocals are either the driving force behind the song, or it appears as though she’s being pulled along by the rest of the band while trapped, presenting some sort of evil lullaby (intentional and for effect).

This EP kicks off with the instrumental “Poor Poor Woman With Her Head in the Oven”, but it’s clear, when “You Say” kicks in, that Katsoudas is the star of this show.

The band can create a mood, that’s for sure, but it can also craft a catchy, infectious song. Case in point: “Hello”. From the chugging guitars to the scene-setting organ and keyboards, Katsoudas’ voice dances and mingles over the notes (to the point where you could almost imagine her twirling around through a forest of dead trees). And the whole, beautiful mess is propelled by thunderous drumming (courtesy of Shawn Crahan of Slipknot fame).

But this wasn’t lightning striking once. While a song like “I’m So Beautiful” could almost be dismissed by its simplistic opening, it manages to pull you in like a trap and snaps shut with its hook-laden chorus. The same could be said, to some extent, of the slower-tempo “Happy".

This album is a nice taste of what the band can do, and the lo-fi production adds to its charm. Unfortunately, it over-achieves in its goal of leaving the listener wanting more than the six tracks. So to that end, you might be left wanting more from a full-length the band is (hopefully) working on.

Sigh -- 'Imaginary Sonicscape' reissue [review]

Sigh - Imaginary Sonicscape [Reissue]
The End Records (1/20/09)
Heavily orchestrated metal / Hard rock / Classic rock / Jazz, etc.

Japanese metal outfit Sigh is most often billed as a black-metal band. Sure, 2007’s fantastic Hangman’s Hymn could easily be compared to, say, Dimmu Borgir, but the band is far from a one-trick pony. In 2001, they released a sonic stew of various metal elements, heavily orchestrated with elements of several other genres thrown in for good measure. There’s jazz, hard rock, ’80s thrash, pseudo-disco beats, synthesizers galore, classic rock...

That album was called Imaginary Sonicscape, and perhaps an album title has never been quite so apropos. This reissue of the 2001 underground classic, courtesy of The End Records, includes bonus tracks not available on the original release, including an extended version of “Bring Back the Dead”.

There’s really no way to truly do this album justice in a review. Instead, here are some tidbits of what the band has to offer:

- The album kicks off innocently enough, with "Corpsecry/Angelfall", a straight-ahead thrasher, chock-full of enough synth riffs to make Dragonforce jealous. But the track abruptly cuts out to give way to gorgeous, epic orchestration that sounds more like a score to some Oscar-contending movie.

- "Nietzschean Conspiracy" relies heavily on sampling and sound effects, with the lead singer channeling the soul of Rammstein as he barks over (or perhaps under) atmospheric, spacey beats and jazzy keyboarding.

- What better to break up two genre-bending songs than with a killer piano solo? It would appear nothing, as the one-and-a-half minute "Impromptu" makes a quick little appearance before giving way to the opening riffs of "Dreamsphere" (right out of the mid-’80s, I might add).

- The heavily orchestrated "Voices" is a new track this time around, and once again Sigh explores a more score-based approach, with some nice piano work closing out the seven-plus minutes.

There are a few tracks in which the band pushes, or in one case exceeds, the 10-minute mark, and for the most part, that’s where Sigh really shines. Using five or six different elements in a three- or five-minute song can come across as forced, but on a song like "Bring Back the Dead", the band can meander a little without losing overall focus. On the other hand, on the behemoth "Slaughtergarden Suite" (five parts stretching to almost 11 minutes in length), the band almost doesn’t do enough to vary things up. In actually listening to the song, it's surprising just how fast it passes, but the closing minutes are a bit of a grind, with some nice keyboarding playing under the hiss of vinyl.

Overall, this is pretty avant-garde music. It’s much less schizophrenic than, say, Between the Buried and Me, and much less abrasive to that end, as well. No, this is much more accessible, provided the listener is willing to throw any preconceived notions out the window. Imaginary Sonicscape is an enjoyable journey through sound, and one of those rare "experience" albums where the whole is much greater than the sum of its parts. Not quite as off-the-wall as some other reviewers would have you believe, a lot of music fans can find something to love on here. Don’t let that "black metal" stamp scare you off. (Oh, and by the way, despite the band hailing from Japan, all lyrics are sung in English.)

Glasgow Grin -- 'Saints of the Greatest Sin' [review]

Glasgow Grin - Saints of the Greatest Sin
Year of the Sun Records (11/18/08)
Metal

Who doesn’t love an engrossing story?

With its debut album, Canada’s Glasgow Grin serves up a bludgeoning slab of extreme metal, but in doing so also offers an intriguing story of a serial killer out to do the Lord’s work.

Saints of the Greatest Sin is a concept album detailing the final mission of a hunter of pedophiles (or so it would appear), presented in one nasty, metallic purge of hate. The stutter-stop, hardcore-influenced dirge of metal pours out of the speakers at such a breakneck pace, at times, that the listener almost feels like they are the hunted, trying to escape the wrath of our story’s protagonist.

The vocals grate over each word, oscillating between horrific wails and deathly growls, and this approach may prove to be one of the album’s few downfalls. The total message of the story gets lost at times, and it seems a little surprising that the band would chose to take this approach, solely. After all, for every one-dimensional song (the chug-a-chug approach on "Remorseless" or the full-on assault of "Hole Replaces Face") there are others on the album where the band takes a more dynamic route (the melodic bridge of "Epinephrine", easily the band's best moment) or the times a little bit of groove works its way into the mix ("Remorseless" and "The Terminal"). Then there’s the downright beauty of "Last Rites", which, if this album, at just over a half-hour in length, were a runaway train, would act as the moment right before derailment, where time seems to slow to a stop, even if only for a moment, before the carnage continues.

Taken as a whole, Saints of the Greatest Sin pretty much shows that Glasgow Grin has the ability to really grow into a dynamic metal outfit. Of course, there’s also that chance of the band stubbornly sticking to the bare essentials of its sound, which would ultimately be quite a shame.

Any fan of extreme metal/hardcore hybrids will find a lot to love about this album. It’s one of those which gets a little better with each listen. And, as a plus, the liner notes contain an accompanying story that more fully explains the hero’s (?!) final moments. Like I said, who doesn’t love an engrossing story?

Nickelback -- 'Live at Sturgis' [DVD review]

Nickelback - Live at Sturgis [DVD]
Roadrunner Records (11/28/08)
Unrated
90 minutes

Love the band or hate it, Nickelback has become one of the biggest rock acts of the new millennium, and the group’s new DVD effort, Live at Sturgis, aims to show audiences, fans and non-fans alike, exactly why that is.

Recorded live at the Sturgis bike rally in 2006, Nickelback’s performance is part of the Rockin’ the Rally show. The set was recorded with a plethora of high-definition cameras and offers up a fair chunk of hits, but there are a few issues preventing this from being a perfect release.

The show

Arguably all of the band’s biggest hits are on here, but they stick to three of their five (at the time) albums: Silver Side Up, The Long Road and All the Right Reasons. From the ballads (“Far Away” and “Someday”) to the power-rockers (“Side of a Bullet” and “Animals”) to the biggest hits (“Photograph”, “Too Bad” and “How You Remind Me”), it’s all on here. Longtime fans will miss some of the better, more obscure content off those albums, or even something like “Leader of Men” (off The State). This becomes a more glaring issue when the concert really clocks in at slightly over an hour, and the band only does a single-song encore.

Presentation

The concert footage looks fantastic, presented in high-definition with amazing direction. This is probably one of the best-taped shows, in terms of visuals, that I’ve ever seen. The sound defaults to a 2-channel surround (?!) but is also offered in various 5.1 mixes (CircleSurround, multichannel and DTS). I watched the show in DTS and it sounded pretty solid—the band is spread across the speakers with the crowd noise pushed low in the overall mix. The only complaint, and it’s a small one, is that there are a couple of occasions where the distorted mic for the backing vocals kicks way too high into the mix, actually overpowering Chad Kroeger.

Bonus material

In addition to the concert, there’s a short behind-the-scenes documentary on the band featuring a lot of footage from another concert from the tour; there’s a “photo gallery” that looks more like screen caps from the main show; there’s a short infomercial on Sturgis and Nickelback; and there’s a video for “Rockstar” (how was this song not on the main set list?).

Censorship

This is a rock show at a biker rally. No one should be surprised that, between songs, a couple of choice words are thrown out there. For some reason these words are either dropped off the mix or overtly bleeped out. It’s especially disappointing when it’s done during “Woke Up This Morning”.

The decision was also made to digitally cloth topless women in the crowd during the many audience pans (there are more than a few moments when the cameraman zooms in and focuses particularly on females). I’m not saying topless women would make or break the show, but given the number of cameras filming the proceedings, it’s pretty certain a version of this show, sans nudity, could have easily been stitched together.

It’s especially troublesome when the band takes a brief break and Kroeger compliments the females in the crowd, with the accompanying camera pans, and the women and language needs to be censored. Why even include the exchange at that point? It was a moment that could have been easily cut.

It’s a rock show at a biker rally... what did you expect?

In closing

This is one hell of a show and, albeit a little too short, is both visually and sonically impressive. The bonus features don’t really add too much to this collection, but fans of the band will absolutely love this. All of the radio hits are on here, so even partial fans will have a good time. And parents can feel safe their kids' minds won’t be warped by nudity or bad language, though the censorship might tick off a good chunk of diehard fans.