Review Summary: An album that is absolutely capable of representing the modern metal scene, but never got the chance to do it.
Sixstitch is a modern metal band from the desolate Arizona desert. Fusing the elements of break beat electronics mixed with the hard hitting rock / hardcore music, Sixstitch have managed to create a sound that is merely comparable to any other band. Musically they are like a mix of The Prodigy and some heavy metal band. Sixstitch could be described as the younger brother of modern metal acts like Lamb Of God or Chimaira, the only exception being that they use a sufficient amount of electronics and are not that heavy.
The Collapse Of American Dreams (TCOAD) is an album filled with hard metal riffage and break beat electronics which are all spiced by the great vocals of the singer Momo. The usage of three guitarists (one of them is on bass) in this album has really paid off. Thick, but not too protruding guitar sound is the main tag for this album. The guitarists collaborate very well with the electronics and create a neat motley sound. Guitarists usually never stop picking or sliding the guitar strings during a song and so there are no "hollow spots" in songs that may occur in the more extreme metal bands. Only thing that the guitars may be lacking a bit is aggressiveness. While thick and heavy, the guitarwork could be a bit more aggressive because the vocals and programming effects really are very fierce and sometimes it seems that one of the guitarists could throw a bit more punch into the songs. But I guess that's what Sixstitch tried to do on this album: use 3 guitarists to make the overall sound thicker and more unified, but in the same time controlling the guitars from becoming overly protruding.
The albums starts with an intro titled "6th And Catatonia". It's actually a very poor start to the album since it only features some pretty pointless speaking and screaming which is heavily distorted with electronic effects. After that though, the album blasts out with the song "New World Disorder". Featuring a heavy dose of electronics, some good bass picking, aggressive drumming and very decent vocals from Momo, this track gives a pretty good general idea of what the rest of the album should sound like. With a catchy chorus and a great tempo, this sets the pace for the rest of the album nicely. The following track titled "The Collapse Of American Dreams" is one of the definite standouts of this album. Again featuring some neat bass picking, the insanely intense vocals of Momo, catchy and aggressive chorus and some good programming, this song represents the band's sound near perfectly. Intense, aggressive, influenced by electronics and yet pretty catchy are the keywords that represent Sixstitch as a whole.
The other two standout tracks that this album has are titled "Switchblade Barbie" and "The Curse". "Switchblade Barbie" features a pretty mad tempo and the screaming by Momo is near perfect. Electronic effects are well executed, as always on this album, and give the song a good melody."The Curse" on the other hand is this albums curveball that shows the other side of Sixstitch. The guitar sound on that song is more protruding and the synth parts that are used in that song are ( and I'm not exaggerating) probably one of the best synth parts in the music history ever, even though they are very brief. Clean vocals which are used in that song are also pretty darn amazing, and that is pretty surprising since Momo's strong point is definitely screaming which is 5/5 throughout the album while the clean vocals have a definite room for improvement.
This album does occur some flaws though. Because of the style that Sixstitch plays, it is inevitable that some of the songs sound a bit too samey and may blend into one-another a bit. Thankfully most of the songs have enough charisma to keep them each separated from themselves. The only ones that lack it are titled "House Of Decay" and "Ruined". These songs lack any kind of personality and are easily forgettable. Also, if Sixstitch would have cut the last two songs titled "House Of Decay" and "Summer Of Mars" then this album would have been even better. If they had done that, this album would have ended with the brilliant "The Curse" and would have left the listener begging for more. Instead they put two filler tracks (I seriously don't know why) at the end thought that's that.
All in all though this album is a real treat. While not all that br00tal for the little scene kids to like it, it is a very aggressive record full of feelings and anger and good musicianship. This album is absolutely capable of representing modern metal so it's a bit sad that it never had the chance to do it, since Sixstitch is a very unkown band, the only exeption being the Southwest of USA where they have a certain audience. If anyone is looking for some fresh, good metal then Sixstitch is definitely the solution.
