Twin Method is:
Dean "Melvin" Gibney – Guitar
Adam Carter – drums
Ioannis "Yan" Lamberti – Clean Vocals
Jason Potticary – Harsh Vocals
Matt Carter – Bass
Robin Carter – Backing Vocals | Programming
Twin Method is a nu-metal/alternative metal band from Liverpool, England. They play a very interesting style of metal. They're style consists of many aspects. Twin Method has a nu-metal fundament and they enrich it with thrashy riffs, some programming and quite weak, but fitting drumming. Twin Method also uses two vocalists, Ioannis Lamberti for the clean vocals and Jason Potticary for the harsh vocals.
The volume of self is Twin Method's debut album and it delivers a blast of simple, but catchy metal. All the songs have quite simplistic layout's and there is no amazing instrumental work either. The main weight of this album lays on the shoulders of the vocalists. The usage of two vocalists really pay's off in Twin Method's case. They're good vocal work makes a lot of the songs pretty enjoyable. Ioannis Lamberti has a very smooth and boy-like voice while Jason Potticary's voice is very aggressive and rather growly. During Potticary's singing, it seems that he is only screaming, while infact he is singing. He does scream a little bit on every song, but mainly he just sings. It's he's unique voice that leaves the impression that he always screams. He's voice seems to come from deep inside his throat and while singing, he intentionally craft's the strong, unique growl into he's vox. Ioannises singing on the other hand isn't anything special. He has a good melodic voice, but it's nothing that hasn't been heard before. But the collaboration between those two singers is great. They blow the life into the songs and the cross-singing between them is really good to listen to.
The lyrics that Twin Method sing are mainly about people who do things and make decisions without thinking about how those things affect other people and what problems they can cause for other's. Like Potticary himself said, they mainly sing about people who are basically idiots and care only for themselves. All in all, most of the lyrics are really good. The only track which has quite poor lyrics is the album opener, which has sentences like "Turn to me, justify what you think you've done, Hollow words, *** you, *** everyone!!!" which are really bad and bland. The lyrics and the vocalists are the great part’s on this album.
The instruments, sadly, don't carry out their part that well. There are some thrash influences in the guitar riffs, that are promising at times, but mainly the riffs are too bland. Most of the time there are only standard drop D riffs and power chords which are guided by the bass which is heard very well throughout the album. The bass is actually quite good and fills it's part nicely, the electric guitars are the ones that should have a little more creativity and diversity in them. In some songs the guitarists are actually so uncreative that they only seem to be focused on backing up the bass (which should be the other way around) and just going with the flow. But it ain't all bad. The guitars are saved by the song choruses. The choruses are the only part where the guitars show a little bit of creativity. There are some quite catchy riffs and some cool/powerful power chords throughout the choruses which are backed by the boring, but fitting drumming. The chorus is also the place where Twin Method gets melodic. Throughout the main part, the song is quite powerful, but cold and feelingless. But when the song reaches the chorus the guitars start to create a good melody, the harsh vocals also become melodic and at times there is some help provided by the programming.
The best choruses on this album are probably in the songs "The Abrasive", "Stare Through Me" , "Fake" and "Flawless". But these are only the best. Twin Method has generally very good choruses, the only one that is disappointing is once again in the song "...And Yet Inside I'm Screamin" which, like said before, has quite stupid lyrics. So all in all the guitars could be more creative, but they have they're moments.
The drumming is very poor. It's the most disappointing part in this album. While the guitars have at least some good part's and occasional interesting riffs that make up for the lack of individuality on the long run, the drumming is poor from the first track to the last. It's just too simple. In some band's cases the simple drumming is good and even necessary, but on Twin Method's case, the drumming leaves much to be desired. The drummer, Adam Carter, has a very simplistic playing style. Each song has it's precise main drum beat what Adam Carter plays. He almost never changes it during the song. The only thing he changes during the song a little is the speed of that beat. The drumming technique is very boring and unoriginal. The only thing that redeems the drumming a little is that the simple beats fit the songs. Sure the songs would be much more interesting, when the drumming would be more complex, but in the overall context the simple beats go with the guitar riffs and vocals fairly well.
The programming that is exploited on this album is used only on a couple of songs and even on them it's hardly distinguishable. It's meant to give the songs the final touch, not to stand out in the overall sound. And that's what the programming does perfectly, it is somewhere in the background but it's not very noticeable.
So all in all while this album has some big instrumental flaws, like boring drumming and, at times, uncreative riffing, it still is a good album. The vocal performance is great, the lyrics are really good and the riffs and drumming make a good overall sound. While this band has a very unique style of metal (nu-metal base, thrashy guitar riffs, two vocalists and programming all together) they did it a bit unoriginally on this album. But nevertheless this album is a good listen. It is not excellent, but it is definitely not bad either.
