Finally, a Review or Two
Ok, so I guess I should make good on the promise that I would review some CDs, so today I have the newest releases from the bands Chiodos and Horse the Band.
First up is Chiodos‘ new album Bone Palace Ballet. For the most part the musicianship on this record is very tight, at a lot of times they remind me of Coheed and Cambria. Some songs feature piano and even a bit of a string section.
The vocals is the only thing that throws me off on this CD. Its mostly high pitched, whiney, yelling. This tends to annoy me quite a bit. There are some moments where the vocalist will yell with a deeper voice, but these moments seem few and far between.
All in all, this is a pretty tight album. If you like the whole Emo music thing, you’ll most likely like this album. I, personally, am not a fan of emo at all, but I still found this album enjoyable.
3/5
Next up, Horse the Band’s newest album A Natural Death:
Ok, so this album came out last month, I’ve just recently gotten around to buying it. And after one complete listen to it, I can tell I’ll be listening to it for a while. If you’ve never heard of this band, their genre has been defined as “Nintendocore”, this comes from the fact that they use an 8-bit synthesizer to obtain a sound similar to early Nintendo games . This is one thing that got me very interested in this band, they definetly have a sound of their own.
Now, getting to the CD, this album keeps up their “Nintendocore” reputation with their excesive use of synthesizers as well as the use of a Gameboy Music maker.
All of the songs are fast and/or furious, most with the singer yelling and growling (which seems to be much improved from past albums). Some tracks are split up with a couple very short tracks that serve as a sort of rest from the madness that this band can induce… but even these tracks can be quite insane, such as the track ‘The Beach, which is just sounds of seagulls and crashing waves in the background along with some synth and the sound of a woman crying. Some track highlights include: The incredibly funky and catchy ‘Sex Raptor’, the quircky 8 bitness (made up word) of ‘Murder’, and the incredibly bizzare ‘Kangarooster Medows’.
I very much enjoy this album… but it may be an aqcuired taste. The chaos may be too much for the average listener to take. And the use of the synth could have been reduced. But all in all, this was a good album.
4/5
