Since good old Nebulous is out for every Meshuggah clone (he is such a zealot) I’m going to talk about another clone, why? because its phun with a “ph”, now Threat Signal comes from Canada, they play a sort of what Mnemic/Soilwork play on tech inspired metalcore with touches of Meshuggah like riffin, yes because Meshuggah above all else are an institution, and it seems plagiarism is a form of tribute, so lets check this one out.

“Under Reprisal”, works much like a Mnemic album, it’s actually quite eerie, going from full fledged guitar driven in a almost math shredding to a full out melodic chorus, is it good? well i said it before and i say it again, i have no problem with melodic chorus, if it’s done properly with some good judgment, some musics turn out great because they have a melodic chorus, but pleaseeeee you don’t need to put one in every song, that’s just dumb and ruins most of them, and that shows for sure in this album (not as bad as Mnemic but bad anyway), so let’s have a look, first track is “Rational Eyes”, quite good almost stop go riffing going to a clean vocal chorus that ruins it… next one is “As I Destruct” almost the same formula as before, the riff just changes a bit, but the clean vocals kills me again, they just don’t sound great, almost Mnemic bad, “One Last Breath” is more thrashlike, and it dies in the beach again… guess what… the chorus, but the rest is actually some good thrash/metalcore combo.

“Seeing Red” is a more metalcore/groove metal, until now i think it’s the best one, that is until the chorus, what a bastard band, well at least its short and sweet and drives to a funny sounding stop go/weird riffage, well not to bad overall, “A New Beginning” is next and…it sounds like “new” In Flames or Pain hehehe, funny, and not too bad, next is “Counter Balance” and… it’s actually a winner, it’s not that aggressive, it’s like… well the chorus sucks but at least there is plenty of interesting things in between, “Inane” just sounds like the first track but only slower (weird…), well it dies half way through it, but not that bad, “Now” has some blasting, uhhh, chorus sucks again, “Faceless” its actually better, it seems the more the album goes, the more it gets better, “Haunting” is also good, much better overall, and now the album is over with the appropriately named “When all is Said and Done” and its actually good.

Humm, not a single really good track, never seen so much bad clean vocal chorus since the last Mnemic album, clone anyone? or actually trying to add something new?, it seems they do a better job, the sound is just tighter and therefore more enjoyable, even though they seem to suffer from the same unexplainable need to put some clean vocal chorus in every fucking song, and driving home the same idiotic formula, hell change a bit, mix it around, grabbing the things that made things like melodic death metal or metalcore successful, and remove the hardcore/death in exchange with a more math/groove metal, is good and all, but don’t abuse it … but i guess even though it lacks originality it strives for quality, even though its like if they find a good groove riff they just milk it every time, and that’s a bit boring, i guess my only beef is really fear factories Christian Olde Wolbers production, it sucks, you suck, fear factory last album sucks and i can see your hand all over this one, i just hope it’s just you and not the band.

Threat Signal - Rational Eyes

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Lamb of God did OK with their second album. “As The Palaces Burn” was my first contact with LoG. It’s a very nice record. It’s like Pantera meets Meshuggah kind of record. Their third album, “Ashes of the Wake” did nothing to me. I played the record over and over but nothing got my attention. I think of it like the leftovers from “ATPB”. There’s one or two good tracks but the rest is just the same thing over and over. I didn’t expect much from “Sacrament” because of that. And don’t expect much from a record is normally a good thing. If the record is good that’s a nice surprise, if it’s bad, well, I didn’t expect much anyway so…

Fortunately “Sacrament” was a nice surprise. Not as nice as: “ohh my GOD there’s two oiled up naked blonds on my bed”, but, a nice surprise nevertheless.

First thing I noticed, when I played “Sacrament”, was that they are more melodic. The second thing was that Pantera incarnated in LoG. At least on track #3 “Redneck”, It’s Pantera all the way. Even the vocals reminds me Phil Anselmo on some parts.

So… LoG sharpened their melodic side, some tracks are more speed up than the ones on the other albums, I noticed the solos are better too, the songs seem more balanced and less boring, but still, I do not think LoG is here to stay. The melodic approach might be an attempt to capture more audience, and that’s going to happen for sure. Even with the other albums I had kids talking to me about how LoG was great and whatever, but I don’t think that’s enough. They are OK. But OK bands do not survive for years to come. And you know what? the kids will, eventually, grow up and, probably, will get into other type of bands. See what happened to Limp Bizkit. They and their infants ruled the world [yeah, right] and now it’s like: “Limp who?!”. It’s not the same type of audience but is just an example.

“Sacrament” is surely better then “Ashes of the Wake” but my favorite still is “As the Palaces Burn”. If you’re are a LoG fan buy “Sacrament”, you’ll like it. If you’re not, I don’t think you’ll be amazed by this record. Highlights for the tracks “Blacken The Cursed Sun” and “Requiem” though. Really nice tracks.
Personally I’ll stick with Pantera, Meshuggah and At The Gates [the GODS of Melodic Death Metal]. Better check those blondies now ^^

Lamb of God - Redneck

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So… Mr. Devin Townsend is back again. No, I’m not going to review “Synchestra“. Yep, we have already another Strapping Young Lad album. Devin Townsend is doing albums – solo and with SYL – like there is no tomorrow.
So lets play “The New Black”.
“Decimator” comes in. One of the most interesting tracks. Very groovy with powerful riffage, reminding me Nevermore’s latest album style.
“You Suck” is next on line. Holy shit! Is this the most brutal song SYL ever did or what?! Gene Hoglan really kicked on this one.

So far so good… Let’s see, next one is “Antiproduct”. The pace is slower now. The first half of this song is kind of boring. The second half has some cool stuff in the vein of “Bad Devil“. Don’t know what this has to do with SYL but OK, at least the track is not so bad that way.
“Monument” follows and it’s the most similar track to Devin Townsend Band on the album. It’s a cool song but I expect more heavy / brutal stuff with SYL. That’s the all point of having the two projects, I think.
“Wrong Side”. Yep, you were on the wrong side for two tracks Mr. Hevy Devy. Back to SYL now. This song returns to the typical SYL brutality. Hell yeah, now that’s what I was talking about. The chorus has an amazing guitar lick in the background and the solo rocks hard also.
“Hope”. Ohh not again. Slow mellow stuff again. I don’t understand why Devin does this tracks. The SYL albums always have this kind of shitty tracks that I have to skip forward. It just breaks the flow of the record… Second half is kind of fast / brutal tough.
We have “Far Beyond Metal” next. It’s an OK track but nothing special…
Next is “Fucker”. This one has a more industrial / electronic feel to it. Hmm, silly chorus. Not my cup of tea either.
“Almost Again”. Another Devin Townsend Band tune. God damn…
“Plyophony” does the intro for “The New Black”, the final track and my last hope for a decent tune since “Wrong Side”. It’s not very fast but at least is heavy as shit. In the middle section brutality invades again. Nice song for closure.

What I have to say about “The New Black” isn’t very good. Overall I liked about three or four songs in total. This record has eleven tracks. That’s a very bad balance. If Devin Townsend had gathered those four tracks and released an EP, ditching the rest of the songs, this would be a great work!
I’ve read that Devin is taking some time-off now. I’m happy with that. This might prevent Devy’s stagnation. So, enjoy your time-off Mr. Devin Townsend and I hope you’ll do a great return. Cheers.

Strapping Young Lad - You Suck

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I could just talk about Dez Fafara, former Coal Chamber frontman and now Devildriver frontman, well well Mr Dez how times have changed…or maybe not, after the separation from Coal Chamber (just for flaming their best album by far was Chamber Music), he quickly formed a new group, going from the goth>nu>metal that Coal Chamber played to…well…Thrash Metal, that sure surprised me, and i always like a good surprise, Devildriver play a by the book Thrash Metal, sure it touches parts of Rock/Death but hey that’s nitpicking, it’s thrash, actually quite a soften thrash to say the least.

This “The Fury Of Our Makers Hand” follows closely their previous effort, well Dez voice is a bit rougher and there seems to be a search for a heavier more death metal sound, but overall its actually very close, they could join both of them on a double cd, the formula is simple simple lyrics repeated into infinity (trademarked by Dez for sure), a metalcore inspired thrash, loads of breakdowns and shouting for chorus, that obviously are one “you can’t speak on thrash chorus” liners, that is not to say it isn’t good, it’s good, just not good enough, there are indeed a lot of very nice tracks, like “Grinfucked“’s death feeling, “Hold Back the Day”, for its… “i don’t really know, it reminds me of some band”…humm, also “Sin And Sacrifice” and “The Fury Of Our Makers Hand” because it reminded me of the goth like talk he used to do on Coal Chamber..hehehe.

Well with this coal>devil thing we can truly see the influence for good and for bad of Dez in the sound of a band (just like Max), for good i guess the grooviness of the musics, it always sounds good and never too harsh, weird since i seem to be constantly shouting, for bad the one sided simplistic lyrics, yeah no one can shout ME like Dez can, but you know repeating always the same thing is not really that original, good for the breakdown for sure, but not that outstanding, i still have the feeling that this is “The Dez Show” and that if it weren’t for him this band would never get the exposer that it has (as well as a contract), there are a couple of bands that do it better and don’t get as much credit as such, well what can i say? at least it isn’t nu metal and it does seem a lot less pretencions, so ill give Mr Dez a pass and go listen to it one more time.

Devildriver - Hold Back The Day

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