Fallujah - The Flesh Prevails Review

Fallujah - The Flesh Prevails [Post Death / Atmospheric Death]

Such tasteful album art

If you haven't already heard the shitstorm that has been generated over the unbelievable amounts of compression on this album's production, I'd suggest you go over to sites like AMG or Metal-Fi. I will try to talk about the music at hand.

Moving past the terrible production, I quite enjoyed the ambivalent mix of technical showmanship and quite space (which then reroutes to the production, but oh well). This is my first entry to the band that started out with deathcore-ish elements and moved on to the more atmospheric 'The Harvest Womb' EP last year.

One thing that stands out is the outstanding songwriting by the band. With little maneuvering within the songs, the band has managed to spice up the stale tech-death structures which many bands tend to overuse. One technique is the use motifs, sprinkling the melody throughout the song in short bursts and different time signatures rather than using the melody as a main theme, a small but highly effective move that elevates the hooks on a song, hell, on every song here. Atmospheric sections are still grounded with heavy drum-n-bass, as opposed to full out atmospheres, and this gives the songs fluidity- without making it monotonous (yes, all you tech-death bands sound the same).

Another thing that comes out right off the bat is the heavy emphasis on melody - in technical death metal! Many of the songs are highly distinguishable, the most important being 'Sapphire', a song with a thick melody that never seems to tire out for all five and a half minutes because of how well the band has paced it. The ending track, 'Chemical Cave' simply overwhelms with you with melodies (not -solos-) that are instant and accessible despite the intricate musicianship, something I've found highly commendable on this album.

I'm still going to give this many spins, and my opinion may change as December draws nearer. As for now, I am highly impressed with the band's use of atmosphere and melody, something that may have been tried by many bands in the past, but never executed as well as the tracks on this album. The songs are peppered with numerous jam sessions that seem to have been written on the fly, but work well within the song itself without sounding too self-indulgent. Many times, bands of this genre forget that music is not about technical mastery of the instrument, but to express emotions with it. With most bands, I feel like I am listening to a bunch of robots, but not here.

I cannot give an official rating since the production still bothers me. It would be about 4.5/5 without taking sound into account. It's a 3/5 for me because of this production. What a bummer.

Ed Sheeran - x Review [The Buona Vista Musician]

Ed Sheeran - x [Pop]

Most of my reviews are of metal albums - not a surprising thing, mind, since I would more readily listen to a metal record (and then be able to review it) than one from almost any other genre. However, there are times when, compelled by hearsay, hype or other strange self-created reasons, I bite my tongue, step out of my comfort zone and put myself through an entire album of music that I don't usually listen to. Sometimes the results are pleasant, and other times they aren't. This is one of those "other times".

I gave this album a shot mainly because people close to me have been riding the Ed Sheeran hype train really hard. This guy isn't like those other pop artists, they say, attempting to convince me that, assuming there are multiple types of pop artists, Ed Sheeran isn't of the type that I readily profess to dislike.

Sad to say, though, that this album has not given me any reason to afford Sheeran any more respect than I would most other pop artists (that is to say, not a lot of respect). In fact, I could quite easily break this down:

Vocals: My immense disdain for auto-tuned vocals and the reasons behind such disdain are all old hat by now; I won't go any further down that road than mentioning that this album contains fairly liberal use of pitch correction. That matter aside, the vocals are delivered alright (not fantastically, as many people would have you believe). The usual crooning and bluesy runs are there, best observed on tracks like "Don't". Sheeran tries to spice things up with rap-like vocals on "Runaway" and "The Man", which appears "creative" and "original", except it isn't, even in the context of pop music, given that other artists like Jason Mraz and Train  have used vocal stylings like these fairly frequently (and arguably more adeptly than Sheeran). Overall, the vocals aren't terrible, but neither are they amazing. "Bland" would be an appropriate word here - so much for Sheeran being some other kind of pop artist.

Lyrics: There isn't a whole lot going on here aside from the usual done-to-death drivel about puppy love and teenage rebellion. I fully understand that the primary target audience of pop artists like Sheeran is not seeking the musical equivalent of William Wordsworth (nor indeed should it); however, this gives Sheeran no reason to slap together all the cliches he found while listening to 2000s records and repackage them, as he appears to have done here.

Music: Musically speaking, the album plays largely to expectation; Sheeran made his name in the mainstream arena as an acoustic artist and, aside from a couple of tracks, does not deviate much from his tested formula. This creative decision was Sheeran's to make and is mine to critique: much like his 2011 album "+", there is again nothing noteworthy happening here, unless one considers strummed and occasionally-fingerpicked major and minor chords noteworthy. If Sheeran was trying to sound new and improved, it didn't come through; if he was content to make bank off his die-hard fans by simply regurgitating old ideas, then balls to him.

Overall: This album isn't quite the shit show that "+" was. "+" was so bad largely because its radio hits - "Lego House" and "Give Me Love" - were complete garbage. The song with arguably the most airtime on "x" is "Sing", which is a fairly annoying  song (especially because of the unnecessary howling in the choruses) but not quite "Lego House"-level bad. However, that by no means suggests that "x" is anything to write home about - on the contrary, it is bland, uninspiring and unoriginal (and, again, THERE IS SO MUCH AUTOTUNE) which, if you may, classifies it as just another run-of-the-mill pop record.

★☆☆☆☆

Ed Sheeran - x Review

Ed Sheeran - x ["Pop"]

I do not understand the hype for this album. Nothing that has been done here is new, nothing especially emotional. The usual garbage is here though; completely unmemorable vocal hooks, terrible, cheesy lyrics, repetitive rhythms (you get sick of the acoustic guitar barely three songs in) and plastic vocals that the masses seem to have no problem lapping up. How many of you actually listen to actual singers?

Dynamic range stands at 6, which is already quite bad before you factor in that most of the album is acoustic, which somehow means that it is brickwalled to death, a classic example of Rick Rubin's disgusting production. Not surprisingly, it's easy to see that most of the compression is in the vocals, his voice pierces through whatever 'instrumentation' exists on the album. Anybody who has managed to differentiate his songs should be applauded for having such a parochial view of music. Though he uses multiple guitar techniques, all of them seem to be taken straight from the textbook without any of his own personal input instrumentally, so I find it amusing that the album has been marketted as one with lush guitar playing. John Mayer looks like a shredder next to this album.

Speaking of Mayer, the themes on the album are so severely immature and plastic, it seems like an obvious attempt to cash in on Taylor Swift's redundant love songs. This man is the male version of Taylor Swift. Whether he refers to hormones as 'chemicals burning in my bloodstream' in 'Bloodstream' or when he literally talks about his first kiss under the lamp post of sixth street (I am assuming it's his first kiss, for his sake) in 'Nina', there is no way a person of normal IQ can listen without cringing at such lame lyrics.

For vocals, I do have a distinct taste for how I like vocals to be delivered, as most people should, so I will try to stay clear of basing this for critique. However, I observe that Ed Sheeran has a rather monotonous approach to vocals, without anything in his arsenal besides crooning and his usual nasal singing. He tends to stay in the higher register, but never seems to go beyond this range. There is some obvious use of autotune here, but I will give it to him to be able to belt a decent tune from time to time. Ironically, a lot of this becomes obvious on the collaboration with Pharell Williams on 'Runaway'. I am not a fan of either artiste, but Williams does elevate the song here. The only other respite from the croons is the rap vocals on 'The Man'. His rap sounds pretty awkward. I will stop here.

All in all, nothing else stands out in this album. I can imagine a lot of people, who do not listen to much music in the first place, will probably make this album a lot more than it actually as, a male version of Taylor Swift's Red. Then again, even that album had hooks here and there. Pure bullshit.

☆☆☆☆☆ Steaming pile of shit

Lana Del Rey - Ultraviolence Review

Lana Del Rey - Ultraviolence [Pretentious]

☆☆☆☆☆

Feel free to read about some actual music we reviewed. Links are to your right.

Mastodon - Once More 'Round The Sun Review

Mastodon - Once More 'Round The Sun [Sludge]

Was tempted to add one extra star for the album art alone

After the disappointing The Hunter, Mastodon immediately redeem themselves with their latest. Well, nearly.



Good things first; the music is direct and immediate. Some punchy production (but not as great as Blood Mountain) here. The band only saves their progressive passages for the bridge in every song, which is kinda bland, but hey, being accessible isn't a bad thing. There are a lot more guitar solos on this album than I remember in any of Mastodon's albums. The emphasis on this album is catchiness, and most of the songs deliver in that aspect. The band manages to maintain its progressive flair in its instrumentation despite the made-for-pop-radio song structures, and I think that is quite a remarkable feat.

Now the bad, goddamn are those vocals atrocious. Their disability to keep a tune on their own choruses is somewhat embarrassing. The album would have been infinitely better if it were instrumental. There could at least have been screaming instead of heavily autotuned vocals that still fail to deliver. Also, when viewed in the band's context, this is still very far from their best work. I am not against the direction of the band; Blood Mountain and Crack The Skye sound so different from one another but are both considered some of the best metal albums of this century. This album tries to combine the elements of speed and aggression from the former and the spacey atmosphere of the latter, which makes for a rather inconsistent listen rather than a mind-bending one (especially with the heavy sludgy guitar tone). There are instances where the elements go hand in hand ('The Motherload', 'Chimes At Midnight', 'Feast Your Eyes') but also many times when the songs completely halt the pace of the album. One example is the curiously slow 'Asleep In The Deep', a very uncharacteristic song by Mastodon. Some may love it but I wasn't completely sold on this track.

Still, this ain't a terrible album by any means. There are some really good songs here, and this might have been the album they were trying to create with The Hunter. 'The Motherload' is one hell of a tune. 'Aunt Lisa' seriously throws back to the older days of the band, with some really unexpected curveballs. The closer 'Diamond In The Witch House' ends the album in a relatively strong note.

★★★☆☆

Linkin Park - The Hunting Party Review

Linkin Park - The Hunting Party [Rock]

That's an awesome cover, btw

I was a huge LP fan in my younger days so I will try my best to be impartial. Being too defensive of this band is one thing, but on the flip side, we have too many people (possibly guilty of liking a band like this) giving the band far too much hate, and that isn't impartial either.

Opinions on a song-by-song basis:

1. Keys To The Kingdom - The first song had me convinced I was listening to a fake copy of the album at first, kicks off with a heavily distorted scream. Thought at first that this was an attempt to mask the obvious decline in Chester's voice, but he goes off without effects when the chorus kicks in again. Rob Bourdon's drums and Dave Farrell's bass are surprisingly well produced for a commercial record. Overall, one of Linkin Park's best songs in their discography. Chester sounds absolutely vicious here.
2. All For Nothing - Second song features Page Hamilton from Helmet on vocals. Not the greatest collaboration, seeing that his voice has a ton of autotune, but I guess the song would sound a lot worse with Mike Shinoda or Chester on the chorus. Mid-paced hard rock song, not too bad, not too interesting anyway.
3. Guilty All The Same - this one features Rakim on rap verses. A strange song, with an unnecessarily long introduction without much variation that leads to a very uninspired main riff. Again, Rob Bourdon seems to be the only band member taking this direction seriously. Piano led verse seems weirdly juxtaposed against a guitar-driven chorus, and Rakim's part seems forced onto the song.
4. The Summoning - A curious interlude that strangely channels the atmospheric vibes of their album A Thousand Suns.
5. War - A surprisingly great punk song; fast, catchy and aggressive. Lots of screaming, and Chester actually sounds good here again. Nice drums all around. So far the second good song. I will admit that this song caught me off guard, and give me hope for a punk direction with Linkin Park.
6. Wastelands - Great groove-oriented introduction, Mike's rapped verse sounds decent, before going off to one of the worst choruses on the album. What were they thinking when they did this song?
7. Until It's Gone - That one pop song on the album that serves no purpose other than to be the lead single and get airplay on the radio. Really cheap, but it actually sounds not too bad this deep in the album. It's also quite clever that they released their softest song to mislead public expectations.
8. Rebellion - I talked about this on my Facebook page, where the audio given by the band's youtube page sounded terribly mixed. This happens to be a Youtube issue, the production's not too bad here. Song starts off with Daron Malakian on guitars (hell, why is System Of A Down not back yet?!). He easily pulls up the collective musical talent of the group here. The verses are not too bad, but Chester's voice sounds terribly nasal on the chorus, which destroys what could have been one of the better songs on the album. His scream also sounds terribly recorded, it lacks the power that the earlier songs  here had. My guess is that this was one of the first songs to bi mixed and then they forgot to come back and remix this. Again, this song sounds better when heard in context of the album.
9. Mark The Graves - Another curious song, that has an interesting introduction, that builds momentum before completely disintegrating to an atmospheric ballad, and I actually thought it was a pretty fluid transition. There is however, one riff that is completely out of place here, you will know when you hear it. Song ends with another set of really well executed screams, and it becomes a good song for that alone. Count: three.
10. Drawbar - An interlude that features Tom Morello. At least that's one the liner notes say but neither the interlude nor Morello exist. They could have done some Rage Against The Machine shit (again, another great guitarist from another disbanded alternative rock band). I believe this is my third time saying this, but Rob Bourdon sounds like the only one dedicated here. A chessy introduction for the next ballad.
11. Final Masquerade - Actually not too bad a ballad, sounds better than Until It's Gone anyway. Chester sounds great here. So that's four good songs.
12. A Line In The Sand: An absolute killer of an album closer, because it actually kills the album. Guitars and drums shamelessly rip off their older song 'Victimized' (WHY?!). Song has completely no flow fickle mindedly jumping the fence between rock and pop, and a terrible choice of an album closer. Chorus is basically the same as 'Guilty All The Same' (WHY?!). Mike Shinoda is completely out of place, lyrically and musically.

From an album perspective, there are some serious flaws with the album. The first being Brad Delson having completely zero skill or interest in being a guitarist. It's "guitar-driven" but the pilot is meandering without confidence. The second is an uneven mix, which may be a lot more forgiveable since this is the band's first indie production. The third problem is Chester's vocals, which sometimes sounds like it was recorded after a live gig (they might have recorded on the road). As mentioned earlier, he sounded great in some songs, so am not completely sure if it's production or tiredness. My final point may be very biased, but the band does not seem to understand that it's rise to success was due to their great balance of rock and electronics. The latter is sorely lacking here, and this the dullest album ever released by the band. The only breaks in monotony here are the segues between each song, a technique that might have been inspired by Eminem's earlier recordings, and they sorta give a weird sense of urgency between the songs (hence why certain songs sounded better here than they did as stand alone singles). It's a bold but shabby album, but one that shows that the band is far from dead. Just that they haven't quite hit the nail on the last four albums. A by-product of experimentation? We will see.

★★☆☆☆

On supporting local artistes: thoughts from the Buona Vista Musician

Before delving into the post proper, let me provide a bit of context. I have a few friends who are firmly in the "SUPPORT LOCAL MUSICIANS ALL THE WAY!" camp, and these friends, knowing full well my generally negative perception of the local (mainstream) music scene, have constantly encouraged me to give the work of Singaporean artistes a chance. 

It should then be obvious by now that this post has its roots in several solid hours spent listening to the work of those very artistes my friends have stood firmly by.

Now I must add that what, over and above anything else, influences my choice of music is quality - whether the shit I'm listening to is, well, actually any good. Yet, if I were presented with two (good) bands that were for all intents and purposes identical except that one was Singaporean and one was from overseas, I would, without hesitation, treat the local band preferentially. If some band called Aeroplanesmith burst onto the local scene with loud guitars, strong arena presence and a charismatic, screaming demon named Stevie Tai for a frontman, I would most certainly feel proud that we have an answer to the American band so blatantly being referenced here. There is no denying that I do definitely have some 'patriotism', if you will.

Having said all of that, no one should let 'patriotism' cloud objectivity and discernment - no one should lend their support to artistes simply for geographical reasons. To do so would be to encourage mediocrity and complacency from artistes who feel comfortable putting out substandard work, safe in the knowledge that they have compatriots out there sticking with them under all circumstances.

I shall use two local artistes who have gained relatively recent popularity as examples (of course, these two artistes were the two most 'championed' by my 'patriotic' friends).

The first is Gentle Bones. Recently, Gentle Bones released two singles - "Until We Die" and "Elusive" - on YouTube. These two videos garnered a sizable number of views and provided more ammunition for supporters - such as, of course, my friends - to attack 'haters' like me with. After all, if a video gets tens of thousands of views and an overwhelming like-to-dislike ratio on YouTube, it must therefore be amazing, right?

Well, the sad truth is that every single purchased off iTunes or BandCamp goes towards funding what is essentially a feat of sound editing. The lyrics are bland and unimaginative, the music likewise and, most glaringly of all, the singing has been auto-tuned to death (I will, though, give props to the cool music videos). Supporting artistes like Gentle Bones allows them to essentially cheat their way out of the reality that is their mediocre-at-best musical and creative ability and cheat eager listeners of quality, honest-to-goodness material.

The situation is similar when considering another local act: the Sam Willows. As with Gentle Bones, this quartet more than satisfies the basic thresholds that it seems the vast majority of Singaporean listeners want satisfied: a clean, digestible image and impressive video production. Yet, these swathes of listeners either are oblivious to, or choose to ignore, the fact that they are enabling these people to, again, slap together work that is bland ("Glasshouse") or flat-out nonsensical ("Nightlight" - is goodbye the end or not!?) and ride the wave of support from a 'patriotism'-driven audience to fame and consequently drag the local music scene into further mediocrity by 'inspiring' more of the same from other aspiring acts.

Look: I definitely want the best for the local music scene; selfish as it sounds, I would certainly benefit from having local artistes' profiles increased in that I could potentially attend good gigs and purchase good music more frequently and conveniently. However, the exact opposite is happening, no thanks to people who allow 'patriotism' and the novelty of being compatriots with a bunch of people on camera blind them into enabling these people to churn out substandard material.

Also, I'm definitely not ruling out the possibility of these and other similar artistes improving in future; if that happens, I would be more than ready to publicly admit that I was wrong for not sticking with these artistes through their teething pains. However, as is particularly the case with these two dearly-beloved acts, no signs of improvement or change are anywhere to be seen several years from their respective breakouts.

The message I am trying to get across, therefore, is that while one should certainly lend support to local artistes in the hopes of having a thriving local scene, one should also exercise discretion and only support artistes who believe in quality, honesty and originality. 'Patriotism' alone is never a good enough reason to champion a player in an industry as dear to people's hearts as the music scene.