Album Review
Name - Internet Killed The Audio StarName - Internet Killed The Audio Star

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
Name - Band
Wes
Jeremy
Bobby
 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
Name Myspace
 Review Score Code
- Top Cheese
- Brilliant
- Pretty damn good
- Ok I guess
- What Was That?