One hit wonder is such a harsh word especially with bands that have potential. One band out of this category is the punk rock foursome Violent Delight which are from England and only managed to hit the Top 40 with the single
All You Ever Do. I was attracted to this band through the local British music channels where the music channels played them all the time and I still wonder, “With all their airtime, why did the album flop?” It was very strange. Since then, I’ve wondered what will happen next but their official site has been taken down. The last I remember from them is that the guitarist Tom had left to pursue a musical career which leads more to the metal genre. They decided to get two guitarists in yet they haven’t did anything in years.
The overall sound is different from each song. One minute they are fast rock, the other minute it is a punk effort and the next is that they are trying to pour their emotions out. It’s really hard to classify them but the best I could think of is Punk Rock. None of the instruments are technically difficult. Tom plays in drop-D but the way he pulls it off is incredible and the riffs make it easy for an enthusiastic beginner to learn. The bass suffers from being in the background again and just plays the same thing as the guitar. The drums aren’t hard at all but they keep in perfect timing.
Their influences are a bit strange as all the band except Tom (Guitar, backing vocals) which is into the likes of Avenged Sevenfold and the like while the rest of the band traces punk influences. Not the new-age pop-punk stuff but old punk. Admitted, some of the stuff here is quite strong and emotional which brings in the more rock influence. This includes
Alone, the dirty
I Wish I Was A Girl. The punk influences are more effective though with
Secret Smile and the semi-popular hit
All You Ever Do. They try and pack a lot of different sounds with
Parental Guidance which sounds like a folk song though the lyrics are extremely rude, “cause watching your parents f**king is worse than drinking p*ss”
Jump tries to be a nu-metal song and it has lyrics about wizards!!
This band seem a breath of fresh air ruined by cigarette smoke, don’t have a clue what I’m talking about? They had potential but then the band fell apart. The band are still really hard to classify for me but most of the album is more to the punk side of things. Rodney can’t sing for squat but the way he can bring out emotions on things is truly amazing. Emotion aside, some of the lyrics are really poor, most of them are teenage angst girl troubles which is star featured in
All You Ever Do and the rest are either joke songs or angst songs.
Wish I Was A Girl is basically Rodney wanting some girl parts if you know what I mean.
Parental Guidance is about seeing your parents doing
it and
Jump is about wizards and their scary magic.
There is actually no bad songs on this album but some are just bland, mediocre or repetitive.
Shattered is a boring and slapped together song and since it is the opening song is that it is a bad start to the album. People would think when they put on the CD for the first time, “This song seems a bit poor, is the whole album like this?”
Transmission (the song) is another poor effort and worst of all is that it was a single. Again, people will be shone away from the album.
Secret Smile was a good single choice but the actual single flopped.
I know how the album flopped. When I was aware of this band, it was when the first single came out. With most bands, they would release the album with a single but with them, they released four singles until they released the album which was about a month after their fourth single
Transmission came out and I’m sure by that time everyone had forgotten about them and the hype was gone. They should have just released the album along with the hype and the band could have been making music and enjoying themselves today. Oh well, their lose I guess.
