Review Summary: Stand Up and Scream v0.5
Yes, my summary alludes to Asking Alexandria’s first release “Stand Up And Scream”.
AA’s first release was one of the very first ---core albums I’ve ever listened to, so naturally I have a soft spot for that album, and also a soft spot in my head from listening closely to their lyrics.
Nonetheless, it has nostalgia about it. You ever play a video game, and realize it is just a cheap knock off of another great game you played?
That is Make Me Famous. I’m going to review each section of the band by themselves, and then review them together as a whole.
Unclean Vocals: The unclean vocalist Serj Kravchenko is amazing. He can hit deep guttural growls, and can also fry scream with the best of them. What is also interesting is that the unclean vocalist is sometimes accompanied by the clean vocalist, Denis Shaforostov. They both sometimes will fit together with Serj doing deeps and Denis doing highs. It has the potential to be an absolute masterpiece because of the amount of range the two can cover together.
Clean Vocals: Denis Shaforostov has garnered much attention on YouTube under the account Above92 where he did countless covers by himself as well with others. He was great, but the only problem was that it seemed that he would laden his vocal track with autotune or any other enhancement. Nonetheless, it still sounded great. The transition from YouTube cover artist to an actual band did nothing to dampen Dennis’ clean vocals. He is still a monster on the microphone. He has excellent range, going from the high to medium. This is well displayed in track 10 “She Hunted Me”.
Guitars: Sergei Hohlov and Denis Shaforostov are on guitar, with Igor Yestrebov on bass guitar. The talent is definitely there. Hell, there is one song, “In The Shadows of You” that is just one big guitar solo. Even scattered throughout many of the songs is a plethora of guitar solos.
Drums: Dusty Boles is on drum duty. Although not bad, nothing really sticks out. They guy isn’t a bad drummer, there just wasn’t ever a moment where I was like, OH SHIIIIT THAT FILL WAS CRAAAAAAZY”. Basically, Dusty is a typical ---core drummer. He gets the job done, but not gracefully like some other drummers in the genre.
Programming, Synth: There are moments throughout the album where you will definitely notice some synth. I usually enjoy synth or keyboards in bands, but in this band, it just makes it sound that much more like Asking Alexandria. Instead of adding any depth to the band, it really just makes it seem that much more shallow.
Band in Unison: So yeah, you’re probably wondering what the hell is going on. The band obviously has talent, but they have 0 creativity! They bring nothing new to the genre, and unashamedly rip off of other bands, Asking Alexandria mainly. There are very brief moments that light shines through though in songs. The only problem is that there are 14 tracks where only 2 or 3 of them are actually something to take note of whilst the others are typical cookie cutter ---core. The vocalists are amazing, but rarely do anything that truly shows how much range and capability have. The guitarists have skills, but also rarely show this in few songs. Basically, there just doesn’t seem to be anything that separates the band from other ---core bands.
The only thing that keeps this album from going below a 2.5 is their obvious talent. Talent isn't going to get them very far though if all they can do is imitate other bands.
In closing, if you are new to the genre, listen to this album. They have everything that makes up a basic ---core band. You will indeed like them.
However, if you have been listening to ANY kind of ---core music, you will probably not have a good time.
Pros: Excellent vocalists
Talented guitarists.
Brief moments of awesomeness.
Cons: Brief moments of awesomeness.
Lack of overall creativity.
