Reviews From Hell
Stone Tree
- Stone Tree
"Calm Before The Storm", and "Blinded Sanity" are also some pretty catchy and head bopping' tunes. I must say that I was disappointed to hear the demo end with a tune called, "Fucked With My Head". Having a nice sound and musically fitting everything together, the repetitious use of the word "fuck" could have been avoided. It really took a lot of the good feeling out of the song.
With all of these pretty decent tunes, I wish there were more to hear. There was a lot of dead space on the end of both sides that could have definitely fit another 1 or 2 songs and it is a shame there weren't more. Regardless, for the rock music lover, Stone Tree is a worthy listen.
Starting off with their smash hit, "Suddenly", you immediately see that these guys have been busy making some of the absolute best punk sounds Canada has to offer. "Magic" showing us the little less heavy and more melodic sounds of Thee Suddens. "Little Space Remains", "Never Been To Texas", and "Mixed Up" are also some of the highlights of this demo.
One major difference is that they seem to
have sped up their sound.
They managed to keep the catchiness of their old stuff and add some
krunchy guitar sound and some excellent vocal harmonies.
The
disappearance of slower stuff is a sad sight, but they keep their melodic
catchy sound together and make some of the best music Moncton has to
offer. Do I hear the sound of a record deal coming shortly?
Coming to us from Norristown, PA, we have a modern day alternative
outfit called, "Squirm". They have just recently released their very first 7"
which includes 2 tracks of theirs.
The first track, "Inaccessible" can
be found on the "Six Feet Under III"
compilation cassette available at several maritime locations. This song is
the better of the two on the record. A cool guitar lick stuck together with
some catchy vocals and melody, it's almost commercial.
The B side to
this 7" has a song called, "Procrastinate" which I must say I was not all
that enthusiastic about. I have heard other, unreleased material of theirs
and there are other songs that would have been more suited to be
released. It's an alright song but I found the vocals to be a bit
annoying.
Unfortunately, with the invasion of so many bands out there that are using the "alternative" excuse for music, bands like Squirm could get lost in the shuffle. They have a sound that could perhaps be moulded into something much bigger and better. Perhaps a future release of theirs may show some more good music. Cool!
Once again, another band from California invades the pages of VAJ. This time we have Redondo Beach's attempt at Industrial music with Procedure 769's latest release.
The first track, "Tourniquet" is pretty
catchy. Excellent production as the keyboards and guitar both are very
clear, which is surprising because of the limits of 4-track recordings. The
singer's vocals have almost a Indian/tribal rhythmic sound to them that
seems to fit the music.
The middle song, "What %?", is alright, but
the singing of the chorus just doesn't sound right at all, but musically it
almost has an industrial rock sound.
The final track, entitled, "Deception" starts out with a simple, cool bass riff that moves into some distorted vocals which is very much a reminder of Nine Inch Nails. Pieces of guitar fill in some gaps and the drums pick up a little and vocally very much like Trent Reznor. This is indeed the best track on this EP. Slower, simple, but has a unique feel to it.
Procedure 769 is a relief to hear after being filled with "alternative" music garbage.
Hailing from the wondrous US of A we have a modern day punk band, that still has a 70's punk sound to it.
The title track, "A Most Impressive Girl", is crap. The slow melodic vocals are different, resembling Depeche Mode a lot. The heavier part just sounds terrible with the singer singing like he's taking a good dump and is seriously stressed out! The slower part is the better part of the song and would have recommended it stay that way! However, "Disappointment", and "Wild Dogs Run Free" are excellent tunes. The guitar sound on "Disappointment" reminds me of James Bond almost, but sounds really awesome. Vocally, a cross between Saturday Night Live's Opera Man and a good punker.
"Wild Dogs Run Free" is
classic punk. Sounds excellent with a little bit of harmonics in the chorus.
The chorus even has a sound that fits the song name with an almost dog
howl to it that really matches the chorus.
Round has been able to
take cheezy solos and punk music to form, what I call "bulldog rock". The
energy that's felt from the good punkish music I imagine would be even
better in a live performance. Hopefully, with their next release they can
show some even better tunes.
With the release of their second demo, Orchid shows its listeners that the personification of Alternative music is alive and kicking, inside of their sound. At first listen to them, you'll think of Nirvana right away because of the way the singer's vocals sound. This is a very unfortunate thing, but the vocals are not the only thing that is very reminiscent of Nirvana.
Playing the same style of "alternative" music that's been overkilled way too much, a lot of the songs sound much like material from "Nevermind". Some of the songs are pretty cool, and they are something that you might even hear on the radio, but unfortunately they sound exactly like stuff that's already been done a thousand times over, primarily by Nirvana. By listening to this band, you can obviously tell that they are heavily influenced by the modern sound that's flooding the marketplace. Even with touches of originality in spots, and the general sound being pretty good, they lack the ability to turn the influences into something more original.
It's a cool tape, and I like to listen to it, and I'd even go see them live, but the sound is
just too much like all of the other alternative stuff out there.
Coming to us from Santa Clara, California, we have an all female metal band, Mother Earth. "Transitions" is their first full length album after releasing two EP's. Not hearing their previous material, I can assume it would probably have the same kind of sound that's on this full length. A very repetitious overused metal sound.
At first listen to this tape, you can hear shades of Metallica, and Iron Maiden all through all of the songs. The rhythms lack a lot of kick, and the leads are cool but way too much like other bands I've heard.
There's no low end to their sound at all. The bass is buried beneath the guitar, and the vocals are hard to hear amongst all of the guitar work. The guitar sort of sits in the middle and sounds very repetitious after awhile. At one point, I thought the 7 songs were just one really, really long song.
My suggestion would be to not let the influences they have show so much. They have much potential.
Once again we have another punkish, alternative band from Moncton. Hope.
In their latest release, we have a Green Day meets Eric's Trip meets The
Monoxides sound. "Return", "Outside My Window", and "Everybody Knows" are probably the better tracks on this EP. Most of the songs seem to fit rather nicely together on this one package. "Grasstained" is a nice change of pace which is sort of reminiscent of Eric's Trip. "Kerri Age" is also a slower song which you can stick in the cheesy rock ballad genre.
Production-wise; guitar, bass, and vocals are pretty decent but you can barely hear the drums in the mix. The bass drum is really over-done and some of the guitar leads are crap. But, the band itself seems to have a cool sound and I would recommend it to the cheezy punk fans out there!
Attempting to make metal tunes with a touch of melody, The Event Horizon is not one of the better attempts.
Obviously recorded by 4-track, production is the start of the problem. Noisy guitars, hiss everywhere, and a terrible sound, with vocals that are
terrible and a guitar sound that you can't even make out, I don't know why
this was even released. With a better production and better singing, maybe
you'd have a better band.
For a demo that I only bought for a nickel, I got some really awesome tunes from Moncton's Beaver.
Starting with "Again And Again", you immediately see they have some really catchy guitar lines, melodies, and vocals. They have a comparable
sound to The Monoxides, but they're definitely original and worth picking
up.
From Thunder Bay we have a grunge outfit called, Love In Venice. Musically, they classify into that ever popular term, grunge. Mainly because of their sound, but vocally, the singer sounds a lot like Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam. On the title track, "Fraid", you hear a slower melodic start and it picks up. "Push Me" is pretty in-your-face throughout the whole song. Check them out on Snow Blind Records.
Forgotten Valley Gene Pool is probably the most acoustically inclined outfit of this area.
There are tones of life, and a lot of feeling in this music. With touches of cello, violin, and even an accordion, there are a lot of different kinds of sound found on this EP. Vocally, sounding a lot like Rick White with the not-so-matching vocal sound. For the acoustically flavoured individuals, FVGP is a worthy purchase.