 |
| Album
Review |
|
|
Internet Killed the Audio Star is the debut album
from genre-spanning metallers Name. For now, all
I will say is this band are unpredictable and potentially
dangerous.
The mathcore opener ‘Killer Whales, man’
is a quality song, perfectly seated in the mathcore
genre however after that is all becomes a bit
dizzying…There are few genres which are
spared in this 77 minute opus of mental. They
cover everything from hardcore and progressive
rock/metal to jazz-fusion.
‘Mare’ and ‘The Spark of Divinity’
are both brilliant offerings song wise though.
They both begin aggressively and move on to melodic
breakdowns and clean but raw vocals with ‘Mare’
having a bluesier, more groovy feel.
The centrepiece of this album is clear; it’s
the four part ‘Empathic Communicator’.
It’s a fine display of the talent and potential
Name has for the future. It encases all that they
can do as a band; from clean cut emotive vocals
to raw power screams and all that lies in between,
slap work bass reminiscent of Les Claypool (Primus)
and drums that most jazz players would envy. The
rhythm section is however, their strongest section
as I personally feel that many of the ideas that
are started on this album are undeveloped and
simply left as a ‘look what we can do’.
Sadly it is bits like this that keep this album
as a fairly average offering for a debut album
of this ilk.
Following ‘Empathic Communicator (Parts
I – IV)’ it feels as though the band
began to give up, the album peaked far too early.
The final two songs could have easily been cut
out of the album. ‘You’ll Never Die
in this Town Alone’ is an instrumental that
lacks the lustre seen throughout the rest of the
album and as a result sounds fairly similar all
the way through and what could have been a nice
calm finish to the album ends up being the fairy
skippable penultimate song. ‘Charmer’
is the song that leads you out of the album. It’s
not as experimental as the rest of the album,
but is a good metal song. Although poorly placed
as the final track had the potential to show one
last flare of creativity.
Overall, the album is okay. It disappoints as
it had the potential to be a fantastic debut but
is let down by the undeveloped ideas and the sometimes
sketchy vocals. Although mostly fine, occasionally
the vocals become as mad as the music and as such
turn from clean vocals to grating wailing. Although
not to be knocked entirely, I think there are
great things to come with Name as their music
and writing style matures.
2/5
Review by Lauren Dauny |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Band
Members |
|
|
| Track
Listing |
|
|
1. Empathic Communicator Part II Bee Bee (Concious
Incompetence)
2. You'll Never Die In This Town Again
3. The Spark Of Divinity
4. Empathic Communicator Part III Your Sun Machine,
Your Space Embracer (Concious Competence)
5. My Sweetheart, the Whore
6. Empathic Communicator Part I Hommage To The Hunter
(Unconcious Incompetence)
7. Mare
8. Killer Whales, Man
9. Empathic Communicator Part IV How To Murder The
Earth (Unconcious Competence)
10. Charmer
11. Avaler l'Oc
12. Dave Mustaine
13. The Sycophant, The Saint & The Gamefox |
|
|
|
|
|
| Band
Related Links |
|
|
| Review
Score Code |
|
|
- Top Cheese
- Brilliant
- Pretty damn good
- Ok I guess
-
What Was That? |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
