| Eighteen Visions Eighteen Visions |
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 | Tracklist:
1. Our Darkest Days
2. Victim
3. Truth Or Consequence
4. Burned Us Alive
5. Black and Bruised
6. Broken Hearted
7. Pretty Suicide
8. Coma
9. The Sweetest Memory
10. Last Night
11. Your Nightmare
12. Tonightless
Release Date: 2006 | |
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On 1 Lists
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1 of 1 thought this review was well written
Those of the music industry often despise the word formulaic. Its basic meaning interpreted for music would be hearing the same song over and over again on an album, but the catch is that it's really a different song each time. Eighteen Visions is nearly the epitome of a band being formulaic. Despite that fact though, the band's latest record isn't half bad. The image the band portrays (leather jackets, dark sunglasses, and spiked/shaggy hair) nearly matches the music. Eighteen Visions is a cliché fest indeed, but as said before, it's not as bad as most would want to believe.
This album is full of fist pumping songs and that's something that seems to be necessary anymore to please the 'Rock N' Roll' populous of this generation. To really hit the mark a lot of bands both good and bad will like to open their record with a heavy song. Rise Against did it with Siren Song of the Counter Culture, so why shouldn't it be a surprise that Eight Visions would do that too? "Our Darkest Days" however is the complete opposite of a heavy song and doesn't exactly fit the bill that this 'wanna be Avenged Sevenfold' group would normally fit. "Our Darkest Days" doesn't do that. It's the slowest song of the record, but it's also a really great track and perfect opener to Eighteen Visions. The lead guitar opens "Our Darkest Days" with single note plucking that provides a great ambient texture, which sets up the 'chorus' that comes immediately afterwards perfectly. "We must escape our darkest days" serves as the chorus even though it comes up fairly quickly, and the verse comes right after it. The first hint that maybe Eighteen Visions isn't as formulaic as originally thought.
After just one song the thought that Eighteen Visions is going to end up as a great, if not phenomenal record surprisingly isn't out of the question. Well, the first single and song right after "Our Darkest Days" continues to expand the many moods of the record. "Victim" provides the fist-pumping that is expected with a throaty chorus repeated probably one too many times, but still is a nice provider of 'head-banging' moments. The head-banging parts of Eighteen Visions are one of the stronger points of the album, but the greatest piece of the puzzle is just now to be mentioned. Group vocals, bands such as AFI, and more recently Rise Against have made the quality of their music increase ten-fold by putting group vocals into the music. Eighteen Visions does this here as well and it's the strongest piece of Eighteen Visions. Nearly every song has group vocals and that's exactly why the record has staying power instead of being a once in a year listen; the heavier songs benefit the most from this. "Coma" is a heavy on the riffs song, but probably would have ended up as one of the more weaker tracks if not for the addition of catchy "whoa-ah, whoa-ah"'s in the mix.
Eighteen Visions didn't turn out amazing as it may have appeared in the begginging, but the band definitely has pulled out a big surprise. It's not original and does follow a basic structure that doesn't have too much variation instrumentally, but things like the group vocals and variety of moods conveyed help quite a bit to truly make this album worth its money. So maybe the 'Goth' Rock image of a leather jacket, dark shades, and spiked/shaggy hair is cool? Hah, not since the 80s, and even then it was pretty lame.
Pros:
+Group vocals
+Several emotions portrayed through lyrics and vocals
+A lot of songs are quite different from each other...
Cons:
-...however the album is still quite formulaic
-Instrumentally, this is quite weak
Best Songs
+"Victim"
+"Coma"
+"Our Darkest Days"
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| Recent reviews by this author | | | |
Album Rating: 3
oh shi, first time this has happened. 
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First time what happened? Good review.
| | | Album Rating: 3
First time for no comments in two days for a review by me. :p
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/sigh.
| | | Album Rating: 1.5
I really don't like the album very much, it just seems extremely poorly thought out to me. But Victim and Our Darkest Days are good songs.
| | | Album Rating: 2
Very poor effort, I saw them live opening for A7X and Coheed, and couldn't get the crowd to do anything but stand there. Quite a funny sight.
Digging: Bon Jovi - Crossroad | | |
haha, ownt. That'd be pretty depressing for a band.
Good review, as always Ian.
Digging: Brand New - Daisy
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Victim is the worst song that I've heard in a while. I won't be listening to this.
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Agreed, this is an average album, especially as a follow up to one of the great albums in the last few years in Obsession. Call me an idiot, sappy, pussy or whatever, but my favourite song of this is broken-hearted, its so cheesy but well put together. i saw them open for Deftones and Thrice down here in Australia and everyone just stood there until they played Tower of Snakes, then we went mental.
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