REVIEW: Serj Tankian - Imperfect Harmonies

For the past few weeks I've been listening to new albums by bands that I listened to incessantly throughout high school. Most of these experiences were disappointing at best. Disturbed's Asylum? Boring. Linkin Park's A Thousand Suns? Losing focus. Mindless Self Indulgence's Heart? Entirely out of tune and overprogrammed. Stone Sour's Audio Secrecy? Generic and safe.

I came into Serj Tankian's Imperfect Harmonies with tempered expectations. After all, he was the lead singer of one of my top 3 bands in high school, System of a Down (SOAD). However, I am pleased to report that he has managed to create a truly interesting and enjoyable record here.

The album ranges from merely competent to truly phenomenal. He takes Elect the Dead and takes it in it's logical direction by focusing more on the use of orchestral sounds and a greater focus on programming throughout. Vocally it is very much like SOAD was; a little out of tune, but harmonically competent. Most songs on the album start slowly and layer on instruments as it progresses. A very well-paced album, as well. The 52 minute album only feels like it takes about 30-40 minutes to listen to.

The best and most consistent aspect of the entire album is undoubtedly the awesome destruction that takes place on the drums in every track. Serj manages to inject an almost unbelievable amount of energy into his songs using drums. Listen to “Borders Are...,” Left of Center,” and “Electron” for some perfect examples.

In summation, if you enjoyed Elect the Dead or any form of melodic/symphonic rock (Apolyptica, you should pick this up. The songs range from hectic and loud (Elecron, Left of Center) to soft and melodic (Deserving?, Peace be Revenged), but overall it is a truly enjoyable record.

REVIEW: Weezer - Hurley

Hey man, do you like Weezer? If so, you'll probably like this album. Pretty much everything you've come to expect from them over the years. Simple instrumentation, sort-of to really dumb lyrics, moderate attempts at genre shifts from one album to the next. One thing I don't get is I why I found this under “indie rock.” While it's certainly more indie than “Raditude” was, by no means does that make this indie. The album is pretty mediocre, with the exception of one song: Time Flies.

Oh, this song. Where do I begin? The whole song is played out of tune and then, on top of that, is distorted to such a degree that the song is completely unlistenable. On top of that, there's a full 25 seconds at the end of the song where there is nothing at all. I was actually getting physically angry about halfway through the track. “How can anyone possibly think this sounds good?” “How could such an abomination be allowed to be commercially produced?” “What the hell were they thinking?” Just a few choice statements that ran through my head throughout the song. Time Flies is the worst thing I've heard in the past 12 months, bar none.

Besides that song, however, the rest of the album is trademark Weezer. Strange dissonance occasionally that can be jarring. A track or two for various commercial radio formats. Save for a few tracks, the whole album just sort of blends together. Brand New World is probably the closest thing to a stand out song on the album. Other than that, you've really heard it all before.

Linkin Park - A Thousand Suns

Linkin Park's music has been morphing into a pop-rock/soft rock/hip-hop/adult alternative mish-mash for some time. Their latest album, A Thousand Suns, seems to exist to showcase the final stages of this
transformation. This is a textbook case of the cliché "jack of all trades, master of nothing." While all the styles the band plays are executed competently, there is nothing that stands out from the pack. You have your three songs that are tailor made for various formats of radio (hip hop, soft rock, and pop rock), and everything else is just sort of bland and is seemingly just there as filler. The fact that six of the album's fifteen tracks are 30 second long transitional bits (two of those are for the intro) seems to back up that statement.

The lyrics are just the same as they've ever been with Linkin Park. Very moody and angst-ridden lyrics that make you want to lock yourself in your bedroom, apply copious amounts of mascara, and cry yourself to sleep at night.

Vocally it's pretty good. Some interesting stuff with chords and multi-track vocals. However, none of that matters when you notice that all of the vocals are HEAVILY autotuned up and down the album. Also, you can't even hear the instruments on most of the album. Even when you can hear the instruments they've been programmed, quantized, and leveled down so much there's really no point in them being there at all. The album may as well just be "Chester Bennington and Mike Shinoda - Occasionally Singing With a Jamaican Accent."

I can't say I can recommend it to anyone who is resistant to modern pop music, like myself (obviously). If you like listening to top 40 hits stations on the radio I can heartily recommend this to you because it is tailor made specifically for your personal enjoyment.

30 Second Album Review: Stone Sour - Audio Secrecy

Let me preface this by saying that I am a huge fan of Corey Taylor's vocal style. Good register, decent screaming, decent singing. Just soothing to listen to in any capacity. It's a good thing I like his voice because it's the only interesting thing on this whole album. The instrumentation, with the exception of the drums in the intro and chorus of Nylon 6/6, is very simple throughout the album. Whenever there was a guitar solo it oftentimes completely finished before I realized it was supposed to be a solo.
The album sounds like if you added an extra guitar to Daughtry's outfit and replaced him with Corey Taylor. Unfortunately, this leads to fairly generic tracks. Most tracks go a little something like this: acoustic lead in, half band with growly verses, “epic” full band instrumentation with melodic and catchy vox in the chorus, bridge with screaming, repeat the chorus a few times. It gets a little tedious in a 14 track album. At least they try to do interesting things with the chords and key changes, I guess. Musically the album is fine, it's just a bit boring.
The worst track, by far, is Miracles. Seriously the sappiest, most melodramatic emo crap you've ever heard in your life (at least moreso than the usual Stone Sour/Slipknot fare). It was almost unbearable. Definitely drifting more towards pop rock, rather than the pop metal range where they've been sitting since their creation, with this album. The main problem with the album is the overabundance of programming and multi-track vox. It just gives me this feeling that it's all just artificial; its really unsettling.
If you're really into radio rock/metal then give this a shot. Otherwise I can't say I'd recommend it.

Isis - Panopticon/MC Frontalot - Zero Day reviews

Isis - Panopticon



Good music to have on while doing other stuff. Tried to actively listen to it for 4 of the 7 tracks, but wasn't interesting enough to hold my interest any longer than that. I'm sure the 8 minute average track length wasn't helping. Started writing at that point and wrote an article and a half by the time the album finished. So, I can definitively state that Isis increases productivity by 200%.

MC Frontalot - Zero Day



Not metal, I know. Liked his other stuff, saw he had a new album out, had to listen. Hooks are generally catchy as hell; Jacquelyn Hyde, Disaster and Your Friend Wil in particular. John Hodgman has a pretty phenomenal skit performance. Pretty good stuff.

Disturbed - Asylum review.

I have been following Disturbed pretty closely throughout their 10 year careers as one of the top dogs in the nu-metal/modern rock scene. I think that this album is their least interesting or inspired. While the songs have plenty of variation within themselves, I just can't help but feel that they have lost the hunger to push themselves in new directions. Believe, Ten Thousand Fists, and Indestructible were all revelations on their sound; Asylum just sounds like more of the same. You have songs that mainly comprise of staccato growling intertwined with stretches of growl-singing. Nothing that they haven't been doing for the past decade. I honestly could barely tell the difference between tracks 2-6 on the album. If you really, really like Disturbed and just want more of their sound but with different lyrics, then go for it.

Should have an MMA article and a few other album reviews (some stuff that Zune told me I should like, as well as the Scott Pilgrim game soundtrack by Anamanaguchi) up this week.