Expain: Just the Tip

These guys clearly don't take themselves all that seriously. The album packaging on this thing is full of goofy pictures of the band members and others being weird, acting strange, and playing around. Even the album cover—the band member's faces inside a mountain face—is silly. I'm glad the band is having fun. There's way too much seriousness in this business. Still, I wasn't terribly fond of the title of the album. It brings to mind some of the misogyny in rap music. But that's a conversation for another day.

As for the album itself—it's good. I was more impressed with the music than with the vocals. At this point, I have little new to say about the rasping vocals so common these days. When I listen to bands like this, I could care less about the harsh or clean style of the vocals. What matters now is whether the harsh vocals sound good. These vocals are perfectly good, but they are too harsh, almost grating, at times. I'm not getting too old; maybe I'm just a little tired of the crazy rasping.

Not to worry. The guitar, bass, and drums on this release keep things moving quite effectively. This band will stand out for a lot of people because they regularly take musical breaks that have the quality of jazz. This isn't a jazz album, but it does flirt with a slightly more free-floating musical style. I worried that it might come off as a gimmick. I can just hear the pitch—we're a jazzy metal band! People will love us. But it isn't like that—at least I don't think so. Instead, these guys are just going somewhere else to change up the vocabulary of this kind of metal. I like that kind of experimentation and I liked this album.

Track Listing:
1. Bacchus
2. Agressions Progression
3. Phonix Writhing
4. The King
5. Don't Worry, the Worst is Yet to Come
6. Idol Worship
7. Allegiance to Pain
8. Manatee
9. Headbang Your Head Off
10. A. T. M.
11. Eating a Beating Heart

Added: July 4th 2014
Reviewer: Carl Sederholm
Score:
Related Link: Band Facebook Page
Hits: 2207
Language: english

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