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Review Summary: Blistered and broken, but not quite calloused. Calloused hands indicate perseverance, suffering in exchange for gain. In the context of music, a guitarist’s fingers are calloused by the hours he has spent running through scales. A drummer’s hands are hardened by the reverberations of stick on cymbal. Men take comfort in their marred skin. They take it as a sign that they’re mastering their craft, earning something with the sweat of their brow. Gideon’s third album, Calloused, could be seen as saying that the band has mastered their sound. Despite the confident title, it feels much less like hardened, calloused hands, and more like blistered ones threatening to break.
Opener, and title track, “Calloused” indicates the cracks in Gideon’s hardcore formula, but only slightly. Metallic riffs abound and the vocals are as filled with unrestrained fury as ever, but all these things have been done on Gideon’s past records. The new additions to Gideon’s songwriting appears here though to show that the band isn’t a one trick pony. Amidst the mosh inducing chug, elements of the nu metal revival that has found its way into the hardcore and metalcore scene of recent years appear. Melody is exchanged for odd background scratches and quirky guitar squeals. The follow up track continues in the same vein, and it isn’t until “Survive” comes about that we begin to see where Gideon is failing. Despite the welcome addition of Caleb Shomo’s (of Beartooth and Attack Attack fame) scathing screams, the first use of clean singing shows up here. Where vocalist Daniel McWhorter’s mid ranged bellows exude energy and fury, the clean singing lacks real emotion and a great hook. It’s these uninspired moments that tend to bring down the album most.
As Calloused continues, the songs get progressively less interesting and difficult to remember. The uninteresting choruses are far too common, which leaves only the handful of straightforward heavy tracks to carry the record forward. Between only decent breakdowns and average riffs, there isn’t enough substance for it to do much. “The Limit” begins with a soft guitar intro, but devolves into a heavy verse with a vocal flow that seems hip hop influenced. “The Pulse” brings back the softer feel immediately, but being only a short instrumental, it can’t really do much for the album in hindsight. The soothing clean guitar passages and more interesting drums still add a bit more appeal to the album. Two more songs follow, both, sadly, even less entertaining. Each merely repeats the heavy riffs and semi inspiring choruses of the album's earlier stages. While the band performs well across the board, there isn’t any standout performance aside from the screamed vocals. Calloused uses all its metallic hardcore fury in the first minutes and runs out of steam by the end.
Some may find Calloused to be some degree of fun, but most will likely be left wanting. Gideon has the ability to do more, and some of the changes on the album prove that to be fact. Refinement and a more adventurous attitude could turn album number four into something more deserving of the title “Calloused”.
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Album Rating: 2.5
Kind hovered close to a 3 on this one, but either way this is probably the band's worst record yet. Put off the review for a while, let me know how I did. Felt a bit rusty so idk.
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I generally like your reviews, but this one feels a little formulaic and lacking in some areas. I'd love to give you more in-depth criticism if you're interested.
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
Yeah criticism is always welcome. Like I said, felt a bit rusty. Also haven't been on the site much lately and haven't been around reviews much which could explain some of that rustiness as well.
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
This album is as straightforward as they come, but I love Will Putney's production and the band's lyrics. I feel like the biggest issue is the fact Gideon have failed the find a truly effective clean singer, and it brings the band down.
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i actually think that they took a step forward in terms of progression. But I don't know if they're progressing the right way, if that makes sense
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
This is on par with Milestone and Costs for me. Not a step forwards or backwards really. And what are you talking about, Survive has a huge hook Game. You must have listened to it wrong.
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
I might have forgotten to say artiswar but Survive is the closest thing to a hook on this album, sorry if I didn't get that across.
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
We disagree for once. Love this album.
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
lol yeah. I was thinking a 3 at first, maybe even a 3.5 but it just kept growing off me.
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Okay, cool. Keep in mind that most of this stuff is just stylistic difference, so you don't have to follow it.
" "The Limit” begins with a soft guitar intro, wholly welcoming, but devolves into a heavy verse with a vocal flow that seems hip hop influenced."
-With this one the 'wholly welcoming' part doesn't really work. I get what you're saying here, but the way that the sentence is structured, you don't need it. By using the word 'devolves' you are insinuating that the soft guitar intro is good.
"Gideon’s third album, Calloused, might be trying to say that they have begun to master their sound, or might be saying nothing of the sort. Regardless of how the band interprets this record, it feels much less like hardened, calloused hands, and more like blistered ones threatening to break."
-I really enjoy the ideas that you have going in your intro; tying in the album name is really good. However, the whole "or might be saying nothing of the sort" basically negates the entire paragraph. We definitely have the ability to suppose certain things about the music that we delve into, so removing that and re-wording it a little bit could really strengthen the piece as a whole.
" “The Pulse” brings back the softer feel immediately, but being only a short instrumental, it can’t really do much for the album in hindsight. Two more songs follow, both, sadly, even less entertaining. While the band performs well across the board, there isn’t any standout performance aside from the screamed vocals. Calloused uses all its metallic hardcore fury in the first minutes and runs out of steam by the end. "
-There's really nothing inherently wrong with these sentences, but they all suffer from being a bit vague. The last sentence that I quoted here would be better if it was preceded by some specifics on why the last two songs were less entertaining, and it would be cool to know what "The Pulse" sounds like, besides being a softer instrumental. In my reviews, I tend to try to keep track descriptions minimal but more detailed (if that makes sense). For instance, if there are some boring tracks that all sound similar, I describe one in detail and state that there are others that follow this path.
It's a good review, just some higher-level constructive stuff for you. You're a very good reviewer. Pos'd.
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
Thanks for the tips and pointers. I'll do a bit of editing and see if I can clean it up a bit. Thanks for that last compliment too. From what I've seen of your reviews, you're a great reviewer too.
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No worries man. I always try to give out some constructive crit when I have some to give. Thanks dude, been writing for years now!
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these guys throw down live
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^ My black eye can attest to that.
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Survive came up on shuffle today and I couldn't believe how bad it was. Sounded like a bad Skillet song.
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