Post by Mason on May 14, 2019 11:37:36 GMT -7
There comes a time when you find a band you like, and then several years later they release a record that ends up leaving you empty handed. For me, New Years Day were never the flashiest or best band in my repertoire, and certainly not among my favorites. But they could craft a solid album, and they did that three times in a row - most notably Victim to Villain. This unfortunately breaks that cycle for me for a number of reasons.
It's hard to really direct blame on any one party for the disappointment I feel with regards to this album. The instrumentation is decent, although it's clear they've taken a lot of influence from Get Scared. Ash Costello's vocals are still the biggest standout like they were in the past, albeit much less proficient this time around. Most of the issues here are as follows: production so tepid and lifeless you could've sworn Kevin Churko had a direct involvement on the album, obnoxious effects on Costello's voice which include bitcrushing, lyrical themes that were treated with far more grace on the last Halestorm album, and very uninspired songwriting overall.
I admire that this band is itching for a more varied sound (the complete and total abolition of genre as a whole sounds like an amazing idea to me), but there's been far greater examples of variety this year alone; hell, knock on Amo as much as you want, but even that has a lot more to offer in that regard than this, I feel like. This strikes me more like a discount In This Moment record than anything else, and that band isn't exactly the cream of the crop.
this review was taken from my RateYourMusic profile
It's hard to really direct blame on any one party for the disappointment I feel with regards to this album. The instrumentation is decent, although it's clear they've taken a lot of influence from Get Scared. Ash Costello's vocals are still the biggest standout like they were in the past, albeit much less proficient this time around. Most of the issues here are as follows: production so tepid and lifeless you could've sworn Kevin Churko had a direct involvement on the album, obnoxious effects on Costello's voice which include bitcrushing, lyrical themes that were treated with far more grace on the last Halestorm album, and very uninspired songwriting overall.
I admire that this band is itching for a more varied sound (the complete and total abolition of genre as a whole sounds like an amazing idea to me), but there's been far greater examples of variety this year alone; hell, knock on Amo as much as you want, but even that has a lot more to offer in that regard than this, I feel like. This strikes me more like a discount In This Moment record than anything else, and that band isn't exactly the cream of the crop.
this review was taken from my RateYourMusic profile