Review Summary: Not satisfyingly enough of what made ISMFOF, ISMFOF.
So, here we are. A couple years after we've all seen "Sex ed Rocks" and laughed, and a couple years after we've heard "You Can't Spell Slaughter Without Laughter" and continues to be a strange guilty pleasure for some, and a year after the original release of "Astral Rejection" was delayed after Nabil Moo left the band, "Astral Rejection" is released. Nabil Moo left, and it seems as if almost everything that "I Set My Friends On Fire" used to be took off with him. "Astral Rejection" is a pretty radical departure from the band's debut.
The album opens with "It Comes Naturally". Compared to the rest of the album, this song is the most related to the original ISMFOF sound. Very attacking guitars with a mellow and melodic chorus seems to sum it up quite easily and safely. It is a very approachable and catchy song, and it can easily take the spot as one of the best songs on the album. It's regrettable, as it definitely leaves you wanting more of the same likability, cheeriness, and hardcore-like sounds found in the album opener of all things. Of course, the rest of the album sounds NOTHING like "It Comes Naturally". It seems as if they sidestepped metal and tried to incorporate every electronic genre of the century into 10 other songs. But it's not all bad, because at least the music isn't that bad.
Although the remainder of the album is mostly electronic, there are spurts of breakdowns here and there but that's literally all the metal aspect is. There's no more melody created by guitar. It's all synth. The only other redeemable metal song is "Astral Rejection", and because of the absence of a real stable foundation in any metal genre, the spurts of random breakdowns throughout electronic songs only create confusion and other sick feelings. They are just uninvited, really.
When Matt is screaming, it's much quieter and overpowered by the instruments at work. It's a nice and refreshing change and the rest of the metal genre should openly experiment with this. It's not necessarily original or groundbreaking, but I don't hear it enough. Matt's screams are the same as ISMFOF's debut album, you either love the silliness, or your eardrums burst and you begin to cry (from what I've heard around the neighborhood). I can say that Matt's screams, to me, are welcome, mainly because they are quieter. It really makes sense if you think about it. And because the vocals are quieter, the instruments are very loud and have an extremely punching sound, in mostly a good way, mainly because that's what this band tried to do in the first place.
Matt's cleans however, are iffy. They are extremely watered down with auto-tune and also sound, may I, submerged in water. During metal sections, these cleans are way too affected to become too enjoyable. However, during the majority of the album, electronic sections, they are much more welcome. It creates a more calm mood and is more atmospheric. You can almost always picture Matt winking at you during this.
The electronic sections and songs are, for the most part, decently constructed. Some dubstep, some electronica, and some techno/trancy areas are all explored in "Astral Rejection". There are some mathy parts that seem out of place, but it's mostly catchy and atmospheric. The music seems, if I may, big. Easily, the best electronic track off the album is "Life Hertz". It's a track that is very upbeat and refreshingly simple. It would have been nice to see more tracks like "Life Hertz" on the album if electronic music was to be incorporated.
All in all, the album tries too hard to be diverse. The electronic chunk of the album may be good and decent and all that, but it overstays it's welcome for people expecting a hardcore album. If ISMFOF is a hardcore band, they should be hardcore, and release hardcore albums. "Astral Rejection" can barely be called a hardcore album. But, ISMFOF is experimental. But I can say that you should stick to a base before you start experimenting. Electronic music and Metal should, for the most part and with a few exceptions, be respectively separate.
status unfortunately. -____-
