3's by Smile Empty Soul
Released May 22, 2012
Yeah, people have their own taste in music and that is all good and well that this make certain amounts of bias come into play during reviews, but that really won't explain why I'm about to say what I'm about to. This album isn't all that good. I like this kind of music, give me some Nickelback, Three Days Grace, Seether, Skillet, and really anyone else from this genre.... but not this album. On 3's, Smile Empty Soul goes for a different sound then they have had previously and normally I would say yes, broaden your sound and get more people to like you. This time around it doesn't really work as well as some might think. They pump the distortion and heavy guitar riffs but every song sounds the same. From start to about track six I hadn't really even noticed a change. There was nothing to distinguish one song from the next and that makes this album for a semi-dull listen. There is nothing special and really nothing that stands out for this album really at all.... It seems as though Smile Empty Soul wrote this album in order to fit in more with today's modern rock, and they are really just trying to mirror success of really other bands. Yeah, that is about it. Starts out fast and it never really slows down and just keeps on pumping and pumping more and more distortion and the same guitar heavy riffs. Towards the end of the album they actually slow the pace down a bit and it makes me think of their older stuff, which is, in my opinion, a much better fit for them. Sean Danielson is probably the bright side of this album as he is able to pull of the vocals quite nicely. I actually had to stop listening to this about halfway though because I could not listen to it straight through. Usually this doesn't pose a problem but I found myself myself wanting to listen to some real music. Well, here we go with the track list and the notable songs.
Track One - Carve
This song sets the tone for the album. It starts with a mini drum intro the song a guitar chimes in and here we go; fast pace rock with lots of distortion works for many bands, but again it's not really special.
Track Two - Ugly
Track Three - Warning
Track Four - Sleep Deprivation
Track Five - Hiding Place
Track Six - Let Go
This is around where I stopped.... I saved the rest for later....
Track Seven - Basement
Track Eight - Afterlife
Would have been better as an Avenged Sevenfold cover.... wait nevermind, don't do that, don't butcher their music.
Track Nine - Greatest Hits and Melodies
From here and the rest of the album they kinda go back to their roots and at the same time they kinda don't. For this one though they slow the tempo down and this is probably the one of two songs off of the album that will find it's way onto my iPod. Only 63 more gigabytes left to fill.
Track Ten - Hard Biter
Incubus sounding bridge. Overall a very nice track but definitely not their roots. The second of two songs that might make their way to my iPod.
Track Eleven - Wrecking Ball
Track Twelve - Not Alike
Blue gives this album 4 generic modern rock bands out of 10
You're a fucking moron dude
ReplyDeleteAnd why is this?
ReplyDeleteNickelback, my friend, is about as generic as it gets. No wonder you didn't like this album.
ReplyDelete(Just for the record, this is a different anonymous.)
Ah, well I agree Nickelback is generic, very generic. The thing I was trying to get at though, is that they are at least good at being generic. I liked Smile Empty Soul's previous stuff more because it wasn't as bland. To each their own though.
ReplyDelete