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| Album
Review |
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Perhaps listening to this album with a headache
wasn’t the best idea in the world, but Defeater
didn’t waste any time getting in my bad books.
From the first second of their first track, vocalist
Andy begins to scream, and (almost) doesn’t
stop for the next 11 tracks and 32 minutes.
This is hardcore band Defeater’s debut
album. Hailing from Boston, Massachusetts, they
only recently changed their name from ‘Sluts’.
They’re highly acclaimed in the realm of
hardcore, but, unfortunately, I can’t see
it. They sound like any other hardcore band: loud,
crass, and unrelenting to the point of annoyance.
The saving grace of this album, and thankfully
it’s a big one, is the story behind the
songs. The lyrics tell the story of a man’s
difficult life from the third person, from birth
to death. I found myself entranced by reading
the poignant story in the album sleeve as I listened
along – like some bizarre talking book.
It also manages to avoid the usual clichés
of story-telling, and has some fantastically expressive
lines. It captivates you from the opening line:
“March 1945, unwanted from his first breath,
a mother’s blessing born, a father’s
burden worn”.
I’m afraid the problem with this idea is
that I’ll never want to listen to an individual
track again, because they all roll into one. And
I would have to read the lyric book to know what
they were singing about, because there’s
no way you can decipher the screaming that overpowers
all the tracks.
I can’t find much musical merit here, I’m
afraid. On certain tracks, like ‘Everything
Went Quiet’, the driving guitars cleverly
mirror the aggression of the storyline, but for
the most part, all of the tracks blend into one
and sound like a wall of ill-defined noise.
If hardcore is your bag, this band might well
hit the spot, but don’t expect anything
out of the ordinary. If, like me, you prefer bands
that you can sing along with and that don’t
make you want to bury your head in a pillow, then
I wouldn’t bother with this one. Does it
make me boring to expect a song to contain singing
instead of screaming?
1/5
Review by Helen Williams |
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| Band
Members |
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| Track
Listing |
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1. Blessed Burden
2. Everything Went Quiet
3. Nameless Streets
4. Forgiver Forgetter
5. The City By Dawn
6. Prophet In Plain Clothes
7. Carrying Weight
8. Moon Shine
9. The Blues
10. Debts
11. Cowardice |
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| Band
Related Links |
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| Review
Score Code |
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- Top Cheese
- Brilliant
- Pretty damn good
- Ok I guess
-
What Was That? |
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